Yikes. Did you see that?
The kickoff to Judy Whatsername's mayoral campaign had more pratfalls than a convention of clowns.
- Councillor Bill Clement stole her thunder and knocked her off the front page by dying the night before her big day.
- She declared she wanted to bring transparency to City Hall. And to prove it she dyed her hair to disguise her age (58). Did you see the newspaper pictures? It looks like she's wearing a bad toupee.
At least she stood out in the crowd, which, like a Jets game, was a sea of white---hair, that is.
Judy said she wants to engage youth, but somebody needed to ask her to be more specific how she defined youth.
- She thought it was a good idea to be endorsed by a former mayor --- Bill Norrie, who is 81.
Yikes. He looked like an extra in a zombie movie, except that zombies have more vitality. Norrie was Yesterday's Man to Yesterday's Man.
He was mayor before cell phones, before computers, before plasma TV's.
He's from an era when the future of Winnipeg was a mall downtown.
Good plan getting his endorsement, Judy. It shows you're in touch with downtown redevelopment.
- To show she's not just an NDP hack but that she transcends political parties, Judy Whatever introduced her campaign co-chair, Liberal Senator Sharon Carstairs. Yikes.
Carstairs was born during the war---World War Two.
She's old enough to be getting her old-age pension. Not that there's anything wrong with that; we need the wisdom that comes with age. But using a pensioner to entice youth to politics?
What's that? Reverse psychology?
Carstairs said that getting Judy Wasylycia-Leis elected mayor was her priority, right next to her first priority---the planet ... Does the word flaky mean anything to you?
And isn't there work to do in Ottawa? At least that's what the LIberals insisted when Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament. Remember how they wailed that the country's work wasn't getting done? Apparently, they caught up and its all done now, giving Sharon Carstairs the time to save the planet and elect Judy Doubleyou-ell at the same time.
- Judy Alphabet has a campaign slogan that calls for a 'safer' Winnipeg. Bwahahahaha. Sooner or later, someone in the mainstream media is going to ask her about her years working against the safety interests of Winnipeggers while an NDP member in Ottawa.
She was a member of the NDP caucus which bragged that they kept deterrence and denunciation out of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, tying the hands of judges and keeping young car thiefs on the streets instead of locked up.
The mainstream reporters have been protecting Judy's colleague Bill Blaikie, who's now a Manitoba MLA, by pretending he had nothing to do with fuelling the car theft epidemic that's ravaged Winnipeg. Can they continue running interference for her during for the next five months until the civic election? Not if we have anything to do with it.
- The first day's stories have consistently pointed out that Judy W. did a lot of deflecting when asked about her "vision" for the city.
She "did express concern about increased fees for skating and swimming lessons and the addition of parking meters on Selkirk Avenue," wrote the Winnipeg Sun.
Why does that sound familiar?... Oh yeah. Because it sounds like something Natalie Pollock would say. Pollock, who ran for mayor twice, also thought a mayor's job was to micro-manage city services.
- We do know what Judy is against---business influence at City Hall.
Yes, the woman who has never had a real job in her life, never mind running a business that hires people for real jobs, thinks commerce is overrated.
City Hall, she said, doesn't listen enough to community groups, charities, social advocacy organizations, the disabled, and environmentalists.
Or, in other words, forget the people who pay taxes, and listen to the people who want to reach into your wallet and spend your money.
On her first day as a candidate, Wasylycia-Leis didn't want to discuss things that voters want to hear, like her proposals for property taxes.
How do you sugarcoat "I'm going to raise your taxes and give the money to my left-wing social worker, social engineer friends?"
Yikes, transparency be damned.