Friday, October 05, 2007

Righteous Indignation

Normally I am unimpressed when politicians go into "righteous indignation" mode. It usually seems staged and insincere. I was a little surprised when Howard Hampton had his moderate tantrum yesterday but I liked it because I think he got it right. This provincial election has been badly side-tracked by accusations of broken promises and fixation on the school funding issue.

Mr. Hampton vented his frustration that substantive issues are being ignored, including the gap between rich and poor. Recent reports have reiterated that children who live in poverty fall behind because of poor nutrition. We know that there is little in the way of new affordable housing in the province and the existing housing in Toronto is in desperately poor repair.

I'm still not sure where my vote will go, but I'm glad one party leader challenged us to "get real." I'm not sure that the electorate was paying much attention. Then again, the biblical prophets weren't welcomed with open arms either.

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