Wednesday, March 15, 2006
men in uniform
if you are a strong liberal (read treehugger) you did not want to be downtown toronto today. and for anyone that may be confused about which side of the political spectrum toronto swings of, trust me, today would have made it very clear.
take a lot at the pics. i know they're not very good, but i was caught off guard, and all i had was my cell phone, which is all scratched up and the camera wasn't that great to start with. but it'll give you an idea of the situation.
there was an anti-poverty protest in downtown toronto today. not huge, but enough that there were like 30 police in full out armour out on the street creating a human chain. pretty intense.
and walking down the street was a group of protestors shouting about poverty, and homelessness and welfare. and there were observers. plenty of them since it was lunch time. and let me tell you, if i didn't know that the core of toronto was mostly conservative when it comes to welfare issues, i know it now. people were talking amongst themselves telling the protesters that if they didn't want to be hungry b/c they weren't receiving enough money on welfare, that they should get to work. and other similar comments. now, anyone that knows my personal views will think that i was right at home. and you wouldn't be wrong. the only point in this post is that i didn't expect it. i know i'm a block from bay street (the wealth capital of toronto) and that most of the people that i interact with are professionals like lawyers and brockers, so their comments make sense. but i always thought that despite that, torontonians were a lot more liberal.
i think those days are gone. we're getting jaded. bitter. we're paying taxes out of our yin-yangs and we're sick of it. so when welfare recipients want more of our money, which we have to work 9 and 10 hours a day for, its not much of a surprise that we're not going to have that much sympathy.
and how shallow am i that when i am almost in the middle of an anti-poverty rally, all i can think about is how hot the cops look in their full out metal jackets. yummmm.
p.s. FYI for next time. if you want to have a rally, and you want support for your cause, think about your audience. queen streeet would probably have been a much better choice. bay street and king/yonge, not so much.
take a lot at the pics. i know they're not very good, but i was caught off guard, and all i had was my cell phone, which is all scratched up and the camera wasn't that great to start with. but it'll give you an idea of the situation.
there was an anti-poverty protest in downtown toronto today. not huge, but enough that there were like 30 police in full out armour out on the street creating a human chain. pretty intense.
and walking down the street was a group of protestors shouting about poverty, and homelessness and welfare. and there were observers. plenty of them since it was lunch time. and let me tell you, if i didn't know that the core of toronto was mostly conservative when it comes to welfare issues, i know it now. people were talking amongst themselves telling the protesters that if they didn't want to be hungry b/c they weren't receiving enough money on welfare, that they should get to work. and other similar comments. now, anyone that knows my personal views will think that i was right at home. and you wouldn't be wrong. the only point in this post is that i didn't expect it. i know i'm a block from bay street (the wealth capital of toronto) and that most of the people that i interact with are professionals like lawyers and brockers, so their comments make sense. but i always thought that despite that, torontonians were a lot more liberal.
i think those days are gone. we're getting jaded. bitter. we're paying taxes out of our yin-yangs and we're sick of it. so when welfare recipients want more of our money, which we have to work 9 and 10 hours a day for, its not much of a surprise that we're not going to have that much sympathy.
and how shallow am i that when i am almost in the middle of an anti-poverty rally, all i can think about is how hot the cops look in their full out metal jackets. yummmm.
p.s. FYI for next time. if you want to have a rally, and you want support for your cause, think about your audience. queen streeet would probably have been a much better choice. bay street and king/yonge, not so much.
The End of Privacy - Whitaker