only a few broken windows

as i sat on my living room couch last evening watching the so-called g20 protesters tear a swath of destruction through my city, i couldn't help but feel a twinge of anger at the wanton violence being perpetrated against so many innocent property owners who call toronto their home. and then, this morning, as some of those demonstrators milled about outside the makeshift detention centre set up by police on eastern avenue, my blood really began to boil as two of the young revolutionaries in attendance stepped up to the microphone for an impromptu press conference with the assembled media. at one point one of them was asked how she felt about the number of individuals who had been arrested or detained during the previous night's mayhem, to which she replied: "the police response does seem a little excessive, especially given that there were only a few broken windows left behind." a few broken windows? to her, a historic day which saw shattered storefronts, looted shops, spray-painted walls, torched police cruisers, bricks and bottles and poles and golf balls tossed at officers, and general lawlessness throughout much of the downtown core, to her all of that senseless brutality came down to a few broken windows?

the young lady before the microphone also implied that only a couple of businesses had actually been hit by vandals yesterday, most were multinational franchises, and that the media was deliberately exaggerating the level of violence by looping video images of the "few" stores that were affected. i guess if you tell a lie often enough, folks will begin to believe it: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/831506--store-owners-defiant-after-property-damaged-during-g20-riot

now when you examine the television images of the legitimate protesters out and about saturday afternoon prior to the mindless hooliganism that followed, you couldn't help but notice the number of placards and banners featuring striking images of communist pin-up boys mao zedong and josef stalin positioned above slogans in support of marxist-leninist ideology. (conversely, the anarchist mob largely responsible for saturday's mischief carry few, if any, political aspirations as most decent, card-carrying anarchists would never dream of getting involved in the mainstream political process given their general distrust of government authority.)

as for the wannabe comrades who withstood the rain to make their voices heard in a mostly peaceful rally along queen street and beyond, the question arises as to just how relevant their political beliefs are in modern-day canada. so i decided to review the results of the 2006 federal general election to satisfy my curiosity. (in case you were wondering, i couldn't locate any detailed online results from the 2008 national election.) you may be surprised to learn that in the 2006 vote, both the communist party of canada (?) and the marxist-leninist party of canada (???) offered up candidates in a number of jurisdictions across the country.

now because most of you reading this blog call the trinity-spadina riding your home, i thought you might be interested in hearing how our communist friends fared in terms of popular support way back in january of '06. unfortunately, the communist party of canada chose not to run a candidate in your electoral district at that time, presumably due to lack of interest or finances or both. but the marxist-leninist party did, in fact, offer up one of their own for your consideration four years ago. keep in mind that any citizen residing within your electoral district at that time was free to exercise their constitutional rights (section three anyone?) and throw their unconditional support behind nick l., proud representative of the marxist-leninist party of canada. unfortunately for nick though, only 138 of the more than 62,000 votes cast in the riding that evening appeared to endorse his party's principles and philosophies. in layman's terms, that means that approximately one out of every 449 voters felt confident enough in the platform presented by the marxist-leninist party of canada so as to pencil in an "x" in the appropriate box. what does this say then about the protesters holding images of mao and stalin who attempted to espouse their views yesterday in the streets of downtown toronto? what it says is this: they have almost no support from the general public. zero. zip. nil. nada.

so to summarize then: the anarchist thugs responsible for precipitating a few broken windows over the past twenty-four hours are not even interested in participating in the honest exchange of ideas and opinions known as the democratic process, while the communist apologists who took part in yesterday's demonstrations have been told again and again by the canadian electorate that their principles are not welcome in this nation. given that context, the violence and devastation wrought by many of those individuals yesterday almost begins to make sense, doesn't it? at least to them, i mean.

i promise that if you just give it a chance it will grow on you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjPDayIh08s

"it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others that have been tried." - winston churchill