Another Prog Rockin'?

DippersGoingDeep
CenterOfTheUniverseVille

It's a little bit off the LotusLand radar, but there is an interesting provincial by-election taking place in Ontario today:

The departure of former education minister Gerard Kennedy to contest the federal Liberal leadership forced McGuinty to call a by-election in a west-end riding the Grits won with almost 58 per cent of the vote in 2003 — versus roughly 16 per cent apiece for the Tories and New Democrats.

Winning today should be a snap for Liberal candidate Sylvia Watson, a first-term city councillor, except it probably won't be.

As a powerful provincial Liberal confided the other day: "We're starting to think this was a Gerard Kennedy riding more than it was a Liberal riding. Half the folks there probably thought Gerard was a New Democrat."

Fearful of losing a high-profile seat less than 13 months before a general election, Watson's campaign — with the full blessing of McGuinty and his office — has aggressively attacked NDP candidate Cheri DiNovo, a local United Church minister.

DiNovo, a former "street kid" who admitted she smuggled LSD in her youth, has written and sermonized about some radical things over the years and the Liberals have helpfully supplied reporters with many of her controversial statements.These include criticizing the late Pope John Paul II for Catholic Church inaction on AIDS and in the Rwandan genocide.

Education Minister Sandra Pupatello said the other day DiNovo's views make her unfit for the Legislature, a curious observation given some of the eccentrics already sitting as MPPs.

And the very strange, and I would suggest distressing, thing is that Ms. DiNovo has also been visciously smeared in the bloggodome for no good reason at all.

So, Ms. DiNovo a progressive?

No question.

But is she a radical?

Open to debate, but clearly she cares about people.

Does any of this make her unfit to sit in the Ontario legislature?

That's just ridiculous.

Me, I've got my fingers crossed for her today.

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Ms DiNovo's views, in her own words, can be found here.

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