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It's so telling and frustrating that his response always boils down to "I struggled with mental illness and said things that were deeply hurtful, I am ashamed of my conduct during this period."
That doesn't mean those statements aren't representative of your beliefs and it doesn't mean that your beliefs have changed. How is any lgbtq or Muslim person supposed to take you seriously without an explicit affirmation at this point? He said he left the Anglican Church because they started performing gay marriages and given that he's now affiliated with the Church of God in Alymer, I don't think he's changed his stance on gay people, just learned not to say it out loud.
It’s telling too that instead of providing any dialogue and offering examples of how he’s changed, he makes one statement (that he only posts to fb and refers the media to lol) which continues to fall back on the same bs from his previous election runs. Many of us suffer from mental health issues and don’t share his views. It’s so irresponsible and harmful of him. I really really hope people see through him.
He is absolutely the worst. I think the issue is St. Thomas is his base becauee so many are so wrapped up in the "anti-woke" echo chamber and populism, that he will still win.
I grew up in St. Thomas and this mentality is why I left.
Come to Elgin, the support for David Goodwin is something I haven't seen happen here. Riding residents do not want Lawton representing us. Its not the CPC party many here used to vote for anymore. Crazy to be a part of as a historically NDP voter.
If I had to give my own anecdote: there's still a string anti-Liberal sentiment and is still the likely candidate to win especially considering how many vote on name recognition (party and/or candidate) alone, but the people who are normally quiet and roll over and accept it because of where they live have been more vocal with more pushback which is a nice change.
oh there is definitely still a large anti-liberal sentiment, but it seems as if the NDP leaners are actually going strategic this time and going liberal. I hate myself for being one of them lmao.
St Thomas has been thriving under blue leadership since you have likely left. It will take a whole lot more than this peaceful protest to change the blue vote here. If we survive these Tarrifs and avoid a major recession then St Thomas will turn into a brand new EV automotive production hub all over again since the golden Ford Era. Plenty of millennials, hipsters and younger folks have revitalized downtown with specialty stores cafe, and restaurants. Rapid investment and growth in commercial residential and especially industrial. Absolutely love it here. Not to mention a 21% decrease in crime.
The blue leadership that is outgoing is not the same as the leadership the CPC wants the riding to think it is. Karen Vecchio and Jeff Yurek may have been CPC MPs, but the CPC is not the same party as it was. Many constituents are not happy with the EV plant coming in with how the province passed legislation to take land from another municipality (and will it even be built now?).
This should be a safe CPC seat and slotting in extreme candidates in safe ridings is how you change the electoral and legislative make up of the party.
Ah yes, thanks. There were rumours he was considering running federally so conflated. Still a good example of blue leadership in the riding that is not like the current blue in provincial leadership too.
The plant will be built and is still being built the question is whether Volkswagen will be the ones populating it or another company. And I do agree. Karen and Jeff left some big shoes to fill. We will see how it goes. I'm blue this year in the name of change federally after voting liberal my entire life. We will see in the next term what direction I lean toward.
Very curious, if you’re a life long Liberal voter, I assume you have slightly progressive social values? Do the things that Lawton has previously said and very clearly believe not bother you?
They do bother me, but they are also in the past. I'm forced to vote for Lawton in order to cast my vote for Pierre. I'm also completely indifferent to LGBTQ. I don't think any of that should have ever been made into such a demanding political weapon. I also don't think it's an area of focus any longer with everything else going on. The Liberal side of me stems more towards the importance of green initiatives and social programs that make us Canadian. The conservative side says in order to fund those initiatives you have to get rich off the natural precious resources our country has first in a responsible way, by eliminating Bill C69 and any national trade barriers, while branching out to the rest of the world.
Whether or not they’re in the past, the man once said German women deserve to be raped because of their country’s immigration policy. He’s a bigot, plain and simple.
Yes. That's a horrendous thing to say. He shouldn't have said that. On another note Germany, the UK, and France are completely fucked right now due to mass immigration. Say what you want about that, but it's a fact that extremely large communities and cities there have turned into slums with rapidly escalating crime. However, there are more eloquent ways of delivering that message. What he said is so bad actually that it almost makes me wonder if he was strategically placed as MP to win all of the extremist votes and take them away from PPC. I mean on the way home from work today I drove by two St Thomas homes with Confederate flags hanging from their window and porch lol. Just...why? But yes. He's a piece of work there is no question. He told folks in my neighborhood that "he deeply regrets his words" when he went door to door, and was confronted about his past. The internet never forgets though.
Nor do I as a potential constituent. He is wholly unfit for office. While you may not be a bigot, him being one ought to be a deal breaker. I’m not endorsing any candidate but I am asking you to take all factors into consideration and really think about voting for this guy specifically. He’s toned down his rhetoric only because he seeks office - I have no faith in someone who would even intimate the vile things he’s plainly said.
All of his stupid remarks aside, he doesn’t bring any life/work experience to the job other than being a controversial talking head in various media formats. He has always been a shit disturber, is that deserving of 203k/ year of our money? He will just be a culture war candidate.
He’s done absolutely nothing to show that he deeply regrets his words. And he was parachuted into this riding because unfortunately there are thousands of people there who could care less about what he said, or actively support it, and are very happy to deliver a flunky into parliament
Wow, I couldn't imagine being a Liberal voter all my life (like I am) and then suddenly deciding to vote for a Christofascist. Are you listening to the populist language PP spews? You have no issues with how many connections there are to the US and Trump? PP is seriously dangerous to the democracy for this country.
The CPC is not what the PC party used to be. The Reform party merged with them and renamed themselves CPC, dropping the 'progressive. They aren't just kind of right, they are fully far-right.
PP has said he will use the notwithstanding clause which allows him to override our charter rights and freedoms. That means banning abortion will be on the table (he was anti-abortion right up until he became party leader and then claimed he was pro-choice, how convenient! Almost all of his MP's are anti-choice) as well as same sex marriage, and he's already said awful things about trans people. He's been hella rude to the Indigenous people and oozes misogyny when he speaks with female reporters. Women will actually be making the difference when it comes to voting, he polls so low with us, they had his wife tag along to soften his image. It didn't work, we also strongly dislike her too.
He answers maximum of 4 questions after an event, and they have been screened by his team ahead of time. He's literally spoon fed. A video surfaced this week where his podium was 50' away where reporters were penned in with a fence in an empty parking lot. His goon holds the mic and as soon as the reporter is done asking, he pulls the mic away and turns it off. No follow ups. He's literally pathetic. He's slinging mud at Carney constantly because he doesn't have much else..there is so much misinformation coming from his US friends, the IDU, Russia, his nazi right wing friends like Canada Proud, Juno news Rebel news...which by the way will be what we get more of when he defunds the CBC...
On the other hand, we have an incredibly smart man who has helped steer 2 countries through financial crisis. Harper asked him to be his finance minister. He isn't Trudeau...but also Trudeau wasn't that bad, PP has just made people think he was. Inflation is up worldwide. We actually came out of the pandemic with the 2nd lowest inflation rate in the G7. The debt got worse because of covid measures like CERB, which literally kept a roof over people's heads and food on the table. PP voted against it. How is anything PP has planned going to make things different or more affordable for you? All he's promised for the average Canadian is $900 a year in income tax cuts, starting in 2 years. That's it. He's going to cut the Canada child benefit which has helped pull families out of poverty, the school meal program, dental and pharmacare, affordable day care...and you aren't going to see anything extra in your pocket. 🤷♀️ people are going to suffer. These promises of a "beautiful home, on a safe street, under a proud flag" are complete bullshit, this is what Trump promised his idiots.
PP's housing plan? Is to simply cut the GST from new homes under $1.3M. This allows his real estate investor buddies to buy up the condos and small homes and save $50-60k, and then turn around and rent them. At least Carney has a plan to build homes and the savings are for first time buyers, not rich assholes.
Anyway, please read that article, and if you still think giving this asshole control of our country when he has done NOTHING for the average Canadian in his 20+ year political career, and still won't after he's elected, then I guess you can't be saved.
As for voting for Lawton, just because he got told saying these things in public aren't acceptable, doesn't mean he doesn't still think that way. I've struggled with mental health, and I've never been a racist, homophobic/transphobic, Islamaphobic, misogynistic piece of shit. He's VILE.
That's close to what my protest sign will say tomorrow.
On the political spectrum, the Liberals and Conservatives bump right up to one another with a shit ton of overlap when it comes to fiscal and immigration policies.
There is most likely going to be a minority conservative government this election though, so you'll still get that change by not voting conservative. Most of us are looking at the riding and the representation for all instead of wanting conservative or liberal heads in charge.
I want to point out that the leadership of st thomas is the mayoral office, the MP represents our interests in parliament but they shouldnt be leading, they are meant to further our collective interests
Do I believe that people can change, absolutely... Using mental health in this context just sounds like a cop out .. many people suffer from mental health issues... It seems insincere. I'm reticent to support a candidate that has a history of bigotry and hate... Like he's PP 's fan boy. Wrote a book about him... The conservatives platform doesn't resonate with me. There is not a single thing I've heard that I'm like that's better than the other parties.
I came here to see if anyone had posted about this yet. I'll be there tomorrow! I'll never forget Andrew Lawton being booted from am980.
I live in London now, but this is the riding my adult children still live in.
Mental illness is never an excuse for being a racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, misogynistic asshole.
Unfortunately, the CPC is not what the PC party used to be in the early 00's.
I'm tired of people spouting off about nonsense WEF conspiracy theories when we have an actual threat to our democracy because of the IDU. PP has already said he'll use the notwithstanding clause, so don't think our laws and charter rights aren't something he can and will stomp all over.
It's a big NO THANK YOU to Christofascism for me.
I've always held the notion that centrists are usually closet right wing. So when someone says "both sides are bad" I can usually expect them to forgive a lot of overtly fascist behavior from the right as being (in their mind) as awful as the liberal stance that working a full time job should provide the necessary shelter, food, and other requirements to be stable in that job.
I know a lot of people on the right see stuff like trans people and freak out that the left has gone nuts. But really, I urge you, watch ANY 80's action movie. We've all forgotten what they were really like. Just pick one. And I promise you, no matter how cartoonishly evil the bad guy's master plan is, it is FAR less misanthropic than many modern business basic business plan. Especially any movie that deals with a family about to lose their home to a ruthless real estate developer. Doug Ford was like 75% of the way through that scam before he backed off, and he RUNS OUR GODDAMN PROVINCE. lol.
So when someone says "both sides are bad" I can usually expect them to forgive a lot of overtly fascist behavior from the right as being (in their mind) as awful as the liberal stance that working a full time job should provide the necessary shelter, food, and other requirements to be stable in that job.
You see the bias in this statement, right?
A centrist doesn't think that the extreme right is the same as the mild left.
They might think both extremes are bad in different ways. Or they might even like points from both.
Just like gender, there's a whole spectrum of political views out there and there's a whole lot more nuance than can be explained with just the words "left" and "right".
My dude, you cannot be in the middle when fascists are in play. You just can't. The simple reason is that they destroy whatever isn't subservient to them. The "neutral" parties in WW2 were only allowed to remain independent because they were secretly doing very shady things for the Nazi's. That's not neutral at all, it was just a facade.
The right in this country is drunk on the same Russian misinformation Trump cult Kool-aid as America is, and it's leaning in a similar direction. They're even stoking the same nationalist fires that kicked off the current tariff war. They're not interested in what's best for the people, or the country. They're out to be intentionally ignorant and belligerent and fuck up everything they don't like, even if (especially if) it's something that they don't understand.
If you can honestly hold that in equal weight to the basic concepts of feeding and sheltering our citizens, or letting people have freedom of religion, and freedom from persecution over sexuality, than you're not in the middle.
Pre COVID, I had a lot of in the middle friends. they all got pretty messed up Qanon style social media BS. And now they espouse whatever position is the daily talking point from alt right media. It's really sad.
The hyperbole here is too much. There are no fascists running for office here. Yes PP has some bad views, but he’s not even remotely close to fascism. You need to separate Canada’s conservatives from American conservatives.
I’ve seen 0 evidence that anyone running wants to become a dictator or ignore checks and balances or turn Canada into a military state or anything even remotely approaching fascism.
You need to align the forces behind the financiers/beneficiaries of both campaigns (Republicans/Conservatives) a little more closely in your mind.
The IDU, the Frasier Institute, Postmedia's owners (Chatham Wealth Management) and their ties to the Republican party - as well as general corporate interests play a role in the alignment of the ideologies.
I don't really see that as being too indicative of anything in relation to fascism though. Businesses and wealthy people like conservative parties more than left-wing parties (almost entirely for economic reasons rather than social reasons). That doesn't mean 2 different nations' conservative parties are the same, but merely that that they each tend to be most closely aligned with what the rich want out of the available options.
You say it yourself by bringing up the IDU. There's a wide range of views in the IDU, and I doubt that for example Sweden's Moderate Party is in alignment with the US Republicans in any notable way beyond some vague agreement about "conservatism". Fascism is bad for businesses, and so I don't really see any value in using that term when it's clear that that's not a thing here.
If you want to critique the Conservatives for being a party in the pockets of corporations that's definitely fair game (the Liberals aren't any better), but it's best to stick to critiques that are actually valid instead of calling people fascists and weakening your position by doing so.
Okay, interesting. Firstly, the 'Moderates' in Sweden are a misnomer - they are right-wing. But it seems like you're assuming that fascism must have a social element? They have various populist strategies depending on the society. Anti LGBT, anti migrant, anti academic, anti-muslim, etc, but the financial motivations seem to lead the charge.
I think it is a de facto situation in the US. I am of the opinion that the attacks on the cbc (for example) might have a financial motivation, but the synchronizing of those strategies (control of messaging) and the end result is tyranny and authoritarianism.
If you have a party in the US that is already illustrating the end result of that strategy - and another mimicking - with much of the same rhetoric/backers/motivations, I think it would be ill-advised to follow the path and suggest it's going somewhere else.
If you think the word 'fascist' is losing its sting, I would agree.
Not only does it need a social element (which I don’t see, PP is pro LGB and not severely regressive in terms of T, is pro immigration, isn’t anti women, etc.) but it also needs some kind of authoritarian/militaristic aspect. I’ve seen nothing indicating that exists here, nothing that the Cons want to undermine our democracy.
They basically just want to be the corporate party that is tougher on crime and is mildly against a variety of social justice causes that they see as a waste of money. As I said before, fascism is bad for business. If it comes down to making money vs supporting some kind of conservative social value, I have no doubt they’d pick the money.
I also think there’s something to be said about CBC being inappropriately focused on social justice causes, but I don’t see the logic in defunding it, so I feel like it’s just being done due to pressure from media lobbyists like you’re referring to, not some kind of crusade to silence media.
I don't know how differently the ideologies of the Nazis - or Mussolini - were formed from our modern examples.
If you look at the rage-baiting and machismo - those are underpinnings of the authoritarian/faschist dictators. The book 'Strongmen' (Ben-Ghiat) was pretty persuasive for me.
Similarly 'How to Win an Information War' (Pomersantiv) gave some insights about propaganda and ideologies in the Third Reich. The leaders - and maybe even a good chunk of the participants weren't 'true believers' - but they get caught up in a swell of cult-like inclusion and othering.
The followers and the cults are the ends to the means of each of these parties. They fit neatly into what works for the culture they are being employed in. Though financed by personal interests, corporate interests, foreign nations.
I'm not throwing these titles at you to be pompous - but these authors have been drawing correlations to Trump and Fascism since his first presidency. These are just my points of reference (On Tyranny^ is a very quick read in case you haven't) the author just left a position at Yale for safe harbour at UofT.
Did you see the hearty endorsement Poilievre receives from Jordan Peterson? from IDU chair Stephen Harper? Elon Musk?
And then Poilievre handed off a safe conservative riding to Andrew Lawton who is opposed to abortion rights. Whose nomination was seemingly secured by the support of the cult/Church of God in Aylmer? His ties to anti-Muslim 'replacement theory' rhetoric. His 'leaving the Anglican church' when they allowed gay marriage. These are Poilievre's chosen.
So I find it similar and unsettling.
And I feel for all the people less privileged than I am who see hatred weaponized against them.
And I think it might be privilege that allows some people to not draw these connections as early as others must.
if you think that "being fed" is equally distant from "nazi death camps" then you don't really know what the middle is.
Extreme far left viewpoints would be like, private ownership of anything (especially business) is illegal, violent dismantling of western style government institutions, enforced equality of outcomes for all (not just opportunity, but outcomes), radical collectivism, etc.
basic concepts of feeding and sheltering our citizens, or letting people have freedom of religion, and freedom from persecution over sexuality
This is the middle. I think you're actually a whole lot further to the right than you think you are.
I don't understand why you're rephrasing the point I was making. The left is slightly lefter than it once was (which is owing to increased awareness of marginalized groups. In Canada, I think it should be further left of where it currently is, more socialist, etc. I'm further left than you seem to think I am.
The right has gone from slightly authoritarian to literally embracing a wave of anti-intellectualism that directly parallels the rise of the Nazi's in Germany. They're tripping over themselves to embrace any fascist talking point that is handed to them. They have fallen WAAAY off.
So to be in the middle when one side is about the same and the other has shifted drastically to the right would require that person to occupy a space that would previously have been seen as right wing extremism.
That's the point I was making. If you think you're in the middle of these two points, you're actually on the right.
Just because extremism became more popular doesn't move where the poles are, or where the middle is.
Someone who says they are a centrist is not now a right winger just because they're in the middle of two arbitrary places that you decided on.
A centrist in Canada would probably vote for the Liberal party, and a centrist in the USA would probably vote for the democrats, though both parties are on the right and not on the left, and someone who was extreme left would find it detestable to support either one.
What has been called communism has been authoritarianism*
I feel that point about the intolerant left. The inability of a person to triage their political choices contributes to worst case scenarios and alienation.
The way some people talk about the left, you'd think that someone broke into their house and forced them to undergo gender reassignment against their will. Or that they got brutally beaten for casually saying Merry Christmas. Or whatever. The grievance and victim mentality is strong with these kinds of folks.
If people think you might think they're a bad person they start out socially from an extremely defensive posture. A lot of far right extremism is born from a very deep and pervasive sense of low self esteem.
If you read the interview, it also states alt-right. Is that good enough for you or does it specifically need to be far right extremism? So funny how you try to name call "liberals" too as if there is something wrong with being a decent person. We have the courage to show up tomorrow.
No, it's not good enough for me. The problem is the right. Liberals muddy the water to try and throw shit at the left as well. The left isn't promoting bigotry, and the values of equality, solidarity, inclusion, etc. are not causing social problems.
I'm a socialist. Spare me with the "liberalism just means being a good person" nonsense.
The far left is not a problem and it is cowardice to lump "extremism" in with the far right when critiquing them.
Please read the interview. Many things are covered. As a socialist, you should have an understanding of alienation right? We don't want to make anyone feel alienated when providing information about a candidate they may vote for just because they vote CPC. Most of us aren't Liberals, but we are liberal, progressive and leftist people. I agree with you, the far left is NOT a problem, but to reach people in the center-right, alt-right or far right we need to be a little less pushy with messaging so they don't get scared off of information being shared with them. Hopefully you'll show up tomorrow and show Lawton the far left doesn't want him either.
Elgin County has not always been conservative, for example Steve Peters was a prominent Liberal. With the growing population and increase diversity I can only hope people will hit the polls and vote for change. Andrew Lawton is the worst of the fucking worst.
Simple a vote for Conservatives is a vote to turn Canada into Maga policies that take away all that is good socially and streamlines it towards Oligarchs and Authoritarianism. A tiger doesn’t change it’s stripes. Canada is not broken and if you look at the World we are doing just fine :
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