Attention all kindergarten to Grade 8 students: Cross-dressing day is now cancelled.

This was the news given to students of King City Public School on Thursday after the school pulled the plug on holding an “Opposite Gender Day” on Friday, where kids as young as six would be allowed to come to school dressed as the opposite sex.

According to Ross Virgo of the York Region District School Board, King City PS officials cancelled the day following an outcry of opposition from parents.

“Opposite Gender Day has been cancelled in the wake of concerns of parents,” said Virgo. “The idea of (kids) experiencing being people of the opposite gender has offended some people in the community, and the school does not want to do that.”

Virgo said the chance to dress as the opposite sex was voluntary to students from junior kindergarten to Grade 8. He said it was proposed by the school’s student council and approved by the principal.

First off, I didn’t think that student councils existed to actually do anything. That said, this pushes the boundaries of accepting “alternative” lifestyles by actually encouraging students to participate in it. I don’t see what’s to be gained by pretending to be another gender for a day because, well, boys will always be boys and girls will always be girls (ideally.)

There’s an agenda in the public school system whether you like it or not, and it’s one that has always attempted to push acceptance over competence — both in academics, and now lifestyle. Keep in mind that in most jurisdictions, it’s virtually impossible for a teacher to fail even a high school student, let alone an elementary school student.

All we can be thankful for is that the parents stood up against this. Hopefully people will start to realize that parents can accomplish more than teachers and bureaucrats.

When Rob Ford announced his intention run for mayor of Toronto you would not have been blamed for laughing at the proposition. Toronto is quite possibly the most liberal city in North America. The current mayor, who was elected for two consecutive terms, is a shade to the left of Fidel Castro. No way would Toronto elect an unapologetic, uncompromising conservative, or so the thinking went. However, Rob Ford ran a campaign grounded in common sense conservatism. And he won an overwhelming victory.

If conservatism can win in Toronto in can win anywhere. Rob Ford being elected Mayor of Toronto would be like Sarah Palin being elected Governor of New York. The lesson is, conservatism wins. The ‘experts’ incessantly tell us that the only way conservatives can win is by moderating, and becoming leftist-lite. In reality, milquetoast conservatives lose. If the only option is between a principled big spender  and an unprincipled big spender, why would voters ever go for the unprincipled option?

Instead of trying to appease the pseudo-conservative intelligentsia, conservatives should focus on first principles. Common sense ideas like low taxes and limited government are sure winners. Whenever conservatism is on the ballot, it wins. The most difficult challenge is getting conservatism on the ballot.

Establishment party officials do their best to smear, defame and defeat conservatives within their own party. Remember, this year’s batch of Tea Party backed candidates had to take on their own party, often in hotly contested primaries. In fact, many in the establishment refused to endorse victorious Tea Party candidates (see: Crist, Charlie). The ruling class fears citizen legislators who are inspired by a belief in limited government.

Despite the best efforts of the elites and their toadies in the media, conservatism wins. Rob Ford’s victory should embolden conservatives everywhere.

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National Post

Kelly McParland: Latte Futures Plummet as Toronto Contemplates Ford Mayoralty

Across Toronto this morning bleary-eyed residents grabbed their two-wheelers and cycled to Starbucks, ordered up a stiff frappuccino — what the hell, make it 2% milk, I’ll need it — and surveyed the damage.

It couldn’t be true. Rob Ford, Mr. Double-Double, a guy who never met a cruller he didn’t like, had pulled it off. The man got himself elected mayor. All those angry suburbanites, the ones who were supposed to complain a lot but skip the actual process of voting, had turned up en masse and put the guy in office.

For Toronto’s urban sophisticates, it was a wipe-out. Total repudiation. Worse than the time they ran out of well-oaked chardonnay at Vintages. What are they supposed to do now, move to Calgary? Buy a leaf blower, for Chrissake? Any day now they’ll be erecting barriers at Pusateri’s, checking IDs. No one gets in without a credit card from Home Depot.

Wearily they munched their almond biscottis and totted up the devastation. Someone would have to contact the holistic, non-profit communal bike-sharing project and warn them the grand opening, scheduled for January, would be delayed.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Calgary’s new Mayor is none other than Naheed Nenshi (don’t worry, no one else has heard of him either.) There are a couple of factors here to consider: 1) He’s gay; 2) He’s a Muslim; and, worst of all, 3) He’s Harvard-educated. While I wonder how the homosexual, Muslim professor was elected in Calgary, a city formerly known as Canada’s Houston (in the province of Alberta, Canada’s Texas,) I find it particularly amusing that this is a guy who needed to run a campaign ad telling people how to pronounce his name (apparently Abdullah Bin-Buttrumping wasn’t good enough.)

Despite running a campaign with a fiscally-conservative platform out of necessity, Nenshi’s campaign was lacking in what most would refer to as “a platform.” Conservative cabinet Minister Jason Kenney referred to it as a “brilliant ideas-based campaign,” but I question how this “ideas-based campaign” is anything more than a big month-long singing of Kumbaya. Seriously, Nenshi wanted to start a revolution where the city folk would spend more time “talking to the person next to you on the bus” and “taking an extra minute with the cashier at Safeway.” All that he was missing were Styrofoam Greek columns and crowds chanting “Yes we can!” And, much like Barack Obama’s 2008 election campaign, with no record to stand on, people were happy swooning over a vision. The true conservative in this race was Ric McIver, and Calgarians will soon learn how bad having a leader who doesn’t represent them is.

Maybe Toronto City Councillor Rob Ford just needs to take it up the butt. And I’d love to be the one to give it to him.

[...]

Exploring anal intimacy could finally allow the man a new openness to others who are different from himself — and in a sense that is tangible instead of just metaphorical. Allowing someone else to pleasure themselves inside you involves a spirited abandonment of personal interest — it’s about giving, instead of always taking away. Maybe if he didn’t have such a tight ass, the noted penny pincher might not be such a tightwad.

Successfully taking it in the rear is the ultimate lesson in vulnerability and trust — two qualities that could go a long way toward improving Ford’s attitude toward the diverse and complex world around him.

As a warning, it only gets worse. Does Xtra represent the mainstream gay community? Perhaps, perhaps not. But one thing’s for sure, politicians should keep their backs to the wall we need to take a serious look at how we define organizations that supposedly enhance Canadian culture. If this represents cultural values that Canadians need to embrace (no pun intended, seriously,) then I think it’s time for those representing Judeo-Christian values to rise up again and say “hold up!” to the government.

H/T to Blazing Cat Fur

Shareef Abdelhaleem plotted to make money off a stock market crash that would have followed a terrorist attack in downtown Toronto.

He was jailed for his part in what became known as the Toronto 18 terror plot.

Now he is the basis for the lead character in a new play sure to be controversial for its sympathetic portrayal of a man who was convicted of planning to blow up Bay and Front Sts. with a truck bomb.

[...]

The play portrays Abdelhaleem, who was born in Egypt but has lived in Canada since he was 10, as an affable cat lover, who quotes Seinfeld and got caught up in something, almost unwittingly, without fully realizing the consequences.

“I think he’s a guy who showed bad judgment,” Frid says. “I don’t think he’s a terrorist at all.”

So, starting next week, Canada’s terrorist sympathizers (a.k.a. ‘the Left’) will be able to flock to Toronto to see Homegrown, the story of one man who likely was just misguided. Or, in the words of the playwright, happened to “[show] bad judgment.”

Tickets are available from the SummerWorks Theatre festival for only $10 (or the sacrifice of a small virgin goat to some dude named Muhammad.)

UPDATE: As I expected, the SummerWorks Theatre festival was the recipient of $90,000 in Arts & Culture funding from the government this past year.

Tattoo Rock Parlour on Toronto’s Queen West is going to be crawling with older women looking for fresh young meat Friday night with one lone woman hoping to be crowned Miss Cougar Canada at the end of the evening.

“We did the first Cougar Convention in Silicon Valley last August and we had a massive crowd and turned away hundreds of people,” said organizer Rich Gosse of Cougarevents.com. “The cougar phenomenon began in Canada, so we’ve always wanted to go to Toronto.”

A “cougar” by its bare bones definition is an older woman who is on the hunt for younger men with no strings attached.

Here are the rules: Anyone 35 and older and legally single can compete for the Miss Cougar Canada Title. Everyone pays their $20 to get into the club and it’s up to the cougars to woo the cubs — the younger men — to vote for them by working the room.

Yes, even the lowest of low on this earth have “rules” at their gatherings. I’m not opposed to relationships with an age difference, to each his own. However, I’m a little skeptical about the notion of paying $20 to go to a club to have 40-somethings flirting with you to get your vote. It’s not an NDP convention…

Rainbow flags, fishnet stockings and broad smiles littered the streets as thousands celebrated Toronto’s Dyke March under a bright, pelting sun Saturday. It was a stark difference from the G20 riots last weekend where black-clad protesters clashed with police under wet, dreary skies.

[...]

“Our guys needed this,” said Sgt. Nancy McLean, an openly-gay Toronto police officer. “Morale was pretty low after last weekend.”

McLean escorted the parade on bicycle, but still participated as she posed for pictures with supporters, who loved her rainbow-coloured socks and the paper rainbow flag planted into her helmet.

About 60 motorcycles, including a Toronto police Harley-Davidson in the lead, rumbled onto Bloor St. from Church to mark the start of the march. Riders wore everything from bikinis to feathered rainbow boas.

[...]

“As gays, we bring a lot of love to the streets,” Chen said.

I suppose the lesson that municipal governments need to learn is that when morale is down, send the lesbians to the rescue! I don’t have a problem with that actually, I just question how police aren’t permitted to show any sort of political affiliation or overtly hold any religious beliefs, but having a rainbow flag glued to their helmet is okay. I wonder what would happen if the Confederate Flag were flying from the police cruiser…

“The use of various violent tools and ways to counter a peaceful rally is by no means justified. The move by the Canadian government is a blatant breach of basic rights of citizens to freedom of expression,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Tuesday.

The spokesperson also warned against the “new and dangerous” approach adopted by Canada toward the civil rights of its citizens, expressing Iran’s profound concern over a lack of life security and a possible violation of rights of those arrested in that country during the last few days.

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