i thought you were supposed to forfeit the argument when you bring up a frivolous hitler comparison? but, that's kind of a fascist rule, isn't it. no debate for you.

the condescension coming from ford, who is now taking advantage of poorly thought through negative trump comparisons by actually aping his whole schtick, is starting to get painful. he's using the kind of verbal sales techniques that they train people to use in pyramid schemes, which is perhaps even an apt comparison. it would be painfully transparent if you were to bump into somebody in a store trying to sell you a warranty plan on a vacuum cleaner by talking to you like that, but watching him extrapolate that unsavoury experience to a camera broadcasting in prime time was physically nauseating; i felt embarrassed for conservative supporters, embarrassed for ford nation and a little embarrassed for the province. i want to be clear that the really cringey part isn't where he's taking the level of discourse, which is down several grade points, but the dripping contempt for voters' intelligence that is exposed in the process of doing so. doug ford doesn't just think you're stupid, he thinks you're a hopeless fucking idiot that can't even figure out google; it must be hard for us to type with those knuckles dragging through the sand, but the kids use alexa instead of google nowadays anyways, right?

hey, alexa. what's a demagogue?

wynne held her own, and drew attention to some of the weird parts in the ndp platform, or just about the ndp over all. i don't think the ndp are actually going to ban back-to-work legislation. horwath's reaction was pretty terrible for a nominal socialist; she reacted to a question about class conflict with an appeal to class harmony. as though electing the ndp will finally put an end to that pesky class war with a group hug and an appeal to solidarity as humans. people are people, too. maybe somebody gave her a copy of reflections on the revolution and told her it was das kapital. the root cause of labour conflict is the accumulation of profit, andrea. i'm all for getting to that root cause, but it's an end, not a means to it. it was actually an absolutely classically conservative approach to labour. but, even so, it was disingenuous: of course the ndp is going to use back-to-work legislation at some point. where wynne came off well in this exchange is that she forced horwath to defend what is really an indefensible position that she can't go off message on.

as i've said, my understanding of the election right now is that liberal voters don't know what to do. i don't know if it works or not, but i think wynne won a few points tonight.