Last Updated on: 27th October 2021, 10:26 pm
It’s not every day that the NDP borrows a page from the Conservative playbook.
Ontario’s New Democrats have apologized for a social media advertisement that mistook one Progressive Conservative legislator for another.
The ad that ran in April said Premier Doug Ford and Tory legislator Kaleed Rasheed had paid sick days at a time when many workers in the province did not.
The ad used a photo of Progressive Conservative representative Sheref Sabawy instead of Rasheed.
The premier’s office called Wednesday for the opposition party to apologize for the “racially insensitive” mistake.
NDP provincial director Lucy Watson said in a statement that the party takes responsibility for the mistake and regrets “any confusion it may have caused.”
Hang on. They swiftly owned up and apologized for doing the racist thing? That part doesn’t sound like the Conservative playbook at all.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford refused to apologize for comments he made about immigrants coming to the province “to collect the dole,” instead saying that he is “pro immigration.”
Speaking to reporters in Tecumseh, Ont. on Monday, Ford said there was a labour shortage in the province and urged people to come to Ontario to work.
“We’re in such desperate need of people from around the world,” he said.But then the premier specified that he only wanted “hard-working” people to come to Ontario.
“You come here like every other new Canadian. You work your tail off,” Ford said. “If you think you’re coming to collect the dole and sit around, it’s not going to happen. Go somewhere else.”
‘Collecting the dole’ is a term used in some countries to refer to receiving unemployment benefits.
Not only did he not admit that perhaps he could have phrased that one a little better, he decided to go the some of my best friends are… route that has worked so well for so many and in the process even got in a plug for that barbecue rally thing he does.
“I have been pro immigration from day one,” he said during Question Period. “We are short 290,000 people. I was the only government who wrote letter after letter to the prime minister saying we need more people.” “All you have to do is come to a ‘Ford Fest’ and you’ll see the support from people around the world.”
Just a few more months and hopefully this will all be over.
