It never fails to amaze when Canadian market-nuts like Diane Francis spout the (paraphrasing, here) "well I'm a conservative Canadian which means I'm to the left of the Democrats in the US," meme.
Yes, as the predictably disappearing public health care option in the US attests, the Dems are almost equally store-bought by corporations, but this argument made by Francis (on Toronto radio Tuesday) and many other over the years is a bugged-out lie designed to FOOL the public. They say this lie for one reason - to wedge out some legitimacy with the centre to centre-left Canadian public that they don't deserve.
Now Francis is most often thoughtful, measured and honest in her opinions and I actually respect much of her work (while often disagreeing). However, if she's to the left of Al Franken and Russ Feingold (among countless others in congress) then I'm the biological product of a pickle and tall stack of Pringles.
This generalization is always an attempt to label him/herself as some sort of Canadian progressive, which, most certainly, the never are.
