Attacking a Jewish, lesbian conservative candidate

It won’t be easy; but it’s not impossible. Yesterday Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty did as expected and called a by-election for September 17 in the Toronto riding of St. Paul’s. The riding became vacant when cabinet minister Michael Bryant resigned to take a job as CEO of a new Toronto agency, Invest Toronto; investing in Toronto, Bryant obviously loves a challenge.

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And last week the Progressive Conservatives under new leader Tim Hudak acclaimed veteran Toronto city hall columnist Sue-Ann Levy to carry the party’s banner. Her main opponent is the Liberal candidate Eric Hoskins, a medical doctor and co-founder of War Child Canada, a charity. The fiscally conservative Levy constantly criticized the free wheel spending of not only Mayor David Miller and the left wing councillors for what she referred to as "Toronto’s socialist silly hall", but Dalton McGuinty and the Liberals as well. Much of that criticism was about Toronto’s imposition of a land transfer tax and a vehicle registration tax, something that could only have been accomplished after the McGuinty Liberals gave the city of Toronto greater powers of taxation. And a key issue in the by-election is likely to be the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) that the provincial government intends to bring in next year. The HST will see Ontarians paying 8 percent more tax on services as well as on many goods currently not subject to provincial tax. The fact that the province, the country and the world might still be in recession when the HST is introduced is not a concern to the tax and spend Liberals. Levy will be a formidable opponent and stands a good chance of becoming a PC MPP in the Tory wilderness that is Toronto. The Liberal Party of Ontario would like nothing more than to be able to Palinize Sue-Ann Levy. But unlike Sarah Palin, Levy is Jewish. And two years ago she publicly came out as a lesbian and legally married her partner in June of this year. Except for some criticism in social conservative circles, Hudak has received kudos for the selection of Levy as the party’s candidate. St. Paul’s has a heavy Jewish population and like Levy, many of the residents are fiscally conservative and socially liberal. It is hard to imagine a better candidate the party could have chosen and gives Conservatives the hope that whatever happens on September 17, Tim Hudak may be the one to lead them out from the leaderless void that they have been in for some time. So how will the Liberals go after a Jewish, lesbian conservative? Well it won’t be easy but Dalton and the Libs will sure take a crack at it. To see what strategy the party will employ, one only has to look at what their house organ, aka the Toronto Star, is saying about the by-election. In today’s article about the by-election having been called, writer Tanya Talaga described Levy as a city hall columnist with the Toronto Sun. A later version that appeared on the Internet merely said that Levy was the Conservative candidate. Every other article that has appeared in the Toronto Star, Levy was described not only as a candidate or a columnist but as a “Jewish, openly gay” columnist or candidate. The Star’s constant description of Levy prompted Bert Raphael, Chairman of Canadian Lawyers and Jurists for World Jewry to write a letter pointing out the fact that there has been absolutely no mention of either the religion or sexual orientation of any other riding candidate or person who is vying for their party’s nomination in the upcoming by-election. Mr. Raphael asks “if this is a subtle form of racism or homophobia?” Of course it is; while the Star would never want to say a bad word about lesbians and cannot get away with blatant anti-Semitism, the description of Sue-Ann Levy as a Jew and a lesbian does have a purpose. In order to help their boy in the upcoming battle (well, we think he’s a boy; the Star hasn’t specifically confirmed that though), they do not want the voters, especially those who would never vote for a candidate who is Jewish or gay or both, to forget Ms. Levy’s religion and sexual orientation. Sue-Ann Levy, unlike the other candidates will never be solely described by her employment as Dr. Hoskins will be. She will forever be the Jewish lesbian candidate who dared to run for office as a conservative. It will be interesting to watch the mud fly.

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