Don Cherry's "performance by a classic bully"

John Moore, The National Post:

Don Cherry reached new levels of boorishness Tuesday as he introduced his pal Rob Ford as the new mayor of Toronto. Cherry, visiting from nearby Mississauga — where he lives and presumably pays taxes — ripped into “leftwing pinkos” during the ceremony in which the chain of office in Canada’s largest city was draped over the shoulders of its sixty-fourth mayor.

Fans of Ford and Cherry will hoot in support of their guys, which is in keeping with the notion of the new mayor’s election as a form of payback to Toronto’s smug liberal elites and their seven years in office, which conservatives regard as a kind of hostage taking. It’s not enough for Ford to have been elected to represent the interests of his supporters, he must be seen to deliver a good kick in the nuts to anyone who didn’t vote for him.

Cherry’s behavior should come as no surprise. He’ll likely say it was all for show. But what has better than fifty percent of the population of Toronto done to be verbally abused at the induction of their new mayor?

Cherry’s swaggering performance was that of a classic bully. He rallied the winners against the losers and will no doubt shrug off any complaints about his graceless appearance as more evidence of what humorless drips liberals are in the first place. But when you’re paid eight hundred thousand dollars a year to opine for a few minutes a week about hockey it’s a bit rich to show up at city hall in a pink suit and claim to be striking a blow for the underdog.

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