TORONTO – When you’re under the weather, Some things just don’t smell right. So, do not eat them. The meal doesn’t look appetizing, it probably isn’t. Two biological senses often kick into gear before we activate our intellect. Funny how politics is so much like eating. 

It is ironic how much we say we depend on debates in order to justify our vote. Who thought it was a clever idea to conduct a debate at 1:00 PM in the afternoon? Raise your hand if you watched the Provincial campaign debate. Most likely, if the turnout at the last election is an indicator, 43% could not have cared less.

The 57% who might have been interested were left to sift through the usual partisan blather by lobbyists who advance their employer candidate’s talking points. If one wanted to compare and contrast macro socio-economic visions of the contenders, they would be out of luck.

If “finger pointing” and moralizing in a modern woke environment is more your style, you would have struck gold on Tuesday. The NDP delighted in pointing out that the Liberals, the previous day, had rejected an Aboriginal candidate, a female lawyer because she admitted having been a sex trade worker earlier. They preferred an eighteen-year-old male high school student (with questionable credentials apparently) instead.

The NDP had earlier rejected the candidacy of one of their own MPPs from Hamilton-Stoney Creek for unexplained reasons. Meanwhile, they welcomed a candidate in Toronto Centre who was embroiled in hateful antisemitic activities as a Councillor and who is now openly spewing anti-Catholic hatred to justify her objection to Separate schools.

Liberals are standing by their candidate in Humber-River Black Creek despite her equally hateful anti-Catholic venom and association of Catholicism with homophobia and transphobia. She is a trustee in the Toronto Catholic District School Board.

Not to be outdone, the PC have some skeletons of their own. Mike Tibullo, current MPP in Vaughan-Woodbridge succeeded in the election of 2018 despite having filed Statements of Claim against his own clients. When another Toronto daily “discovered” his past, the Premier relegated his status in Cabinet, not once, but twice. The Law Society does not appear to have moved against him. He was still allowed to seek re-election.

His colleague in King-Vaughan, Stephen Lecce, is “in a pickle” of his own making. In University, he participated in “slave auctions”.

Communications management says apologize immediately and try to move on. He did but the moving on part may be more difficult. He may no longer be the ideal woke spokesperson in Cabinet or in the Party.

The point of all of this is that “the record” most important to the voter is that “character” not the Party’s “buck a something [fill in the blank]” economic policy. The healthiest meal is the one that looks good and passes the smell test.