WhatFinger


If Johnstone and Tabbara are any indication of the quality of some of the candidates out there, Canada is in for a lot of repeating of history

There’s a new class of politicians and it ain’t pretty



As election campaigns heat up, such as the one leading to Canada’s federal election that will be held on October 19, there are a lot of candidates that say some things they later regret. These types of comments range from the truly racist and bigoted to those perceived to be so in this politically correct world that the left like to refer to as “microagressions.” In the last few years, with the prominence of social media these types of comments are on display for the whole world to see. Now, not only do parties and others who oppose a particular party record these social media comments; they research social media sites and dredge up comments made years ago. How relevant these comments are will be for the voters to decide.

Support Canada Free Press


But now, with the widespread use of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, we have a brand new class of candidates. It is not that these people are necessarily bigoted and racist; it is the fact they call into question whether or not these candidates are bright enough to function in society let alone be elected to a responsible position in the Parliament of Canada. One of these people is Alex Johnstone, the NDP candidate for the Ontario riding of Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas. The publication, The Truth North Times, did some digging and came up with a Facebook post Johnstone made in 2008. She made fun of the posts of the electrified fence of Auschwitz, a notorious concentration camp in Poland where Jews and others were gassed during World War II. The NDP candidate made fun of the fact the posts looked like phallic symbols. Ha, ha ha. What happened after this was revealed was what was truly shocking. Johnstone claimed she had never heard of Auschwitz. She told the Hamilton Spectator, “Well, I didn’t know what Auschwitz was, or I didn’t up until today.” As a politician, a class of people known for lying about anything and everything to gain an advantage, her denial of knowing what Auschwitz is has the ring of truth. Most people would be too embarrassed to admit such ignorance. If she was in fact lying it would amount to bragging about how dumb she is. It would be perhaps be understandable if Johnstone was a grade six dropout whose only question in life is whether a customer wants fries with that, but she is hardly a dropout fast food worker. According to her biography on her NDP candidate page, Johnstone was elected in 2010 as a school trustee and was the vice-chair of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board. Amidst the laughter of her lack of knowledge she resigned that post. >“In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.” -- Mark Twain And we thought Mark was just trying to be funny. According to Johnstone’s biography, she has a master’s degree in social work from Hamilton’s McMaster University. It is inconceivable that such an ignorant person could end up being an elected member of Canada’s Parliament. But Johnstone is far from the only person who can be classified as not bright enough to be an elected representative. While her knowledge of what happened 70 years ago in another continent is lacking, Liberal candidate Marwan Tabbara has no clue what his party and his country did in the last 14 years. Tabbara is the candidate in the Ontario riding of Kitchener South-Hespeler and attended an all candidates debate over a week ago. His ignorance of major Canadian events and his party’s role in them are shocking. The mental midget said that former Liberal PM Jean Chrétien refused to send troops into Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003. Then when the evil Stephen Harper became prime minister in 2006, he deployed troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Well, not exactly. It is true, Chrétien, to the cheers of the Liberals and the NDP, refused to enter the Iraq war in 2003. But this decision was not changed when Harper became prime minister in 2006. While Canada is taking part in the current bombing of ISIS, Canada never entered the war in Iraq that began in 2003. But Chrétien did deploy troops to fight in Afghanistan, not in 2003 but in 2001 shortly after the 9/11 attacks. One hundred and fifty-eight Canadian soldiers lost their lives in Afghanistan but it is hard to believe Tabbara doesn’t know or care about that. If he did, he wouldn’t spout such ignorant nonsense. According to Tabbara’s website, he has a degree in, wait for it, political science from the University of Guelph. Tabbara later apologized about knowing nothing about Canada’s recent Middle East involvements saying he “misspoke.” Right.
“Those who do not learn history, are doomed to repeat it.” -- George Santayana
If Johnstone and Tabbara are any indication of the quality of some of the candidates out there, Canada is in for a lot of repeating.


View Comments

Arthur Weinreb -- Bio and Archives

Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Canada Free Press. Arthur’s latest book, Ford Nation: Why hundreds of thousands of Torontonians supported their conservative crack-smoking mayor is available at Amazon. Racism and the Death of Trayvon Martin is also available at Smashwords. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com,  Drudge Report, Foxnews.com.

Older articles (2007) by Arthur Weinreb


Sponsored