Indeed, that someone within the inner-circle, or even the guy in the center of the circle, couldn't see the mounds of trouble about to burst leaves one to wonder about many things; not the least of which was the equally pathetic and ill-fated damage control strategy.  

I've met John Tory only a couple of times in meetings when he was at Rogers. A hell-of-a decent guy I recall thinking. A true listener. Against that backdrop therefore, I am somewhat shocked he wouldn't hear of the danger ahead, or is it really possible nobody said anything? That too would be telling, wouldn't it?

When the campaign began I was impressed, if not dumb-founded, that Mr. Tory stuck to his principles on the education issue. While in vain, at least statements like "someone has to stake out a territory and stick to it" furthered the credibility factor of the would-be Premier. Too bad for Mr. Tory, the policy was on a path that was directionally challenged from its inception.     

However politicians, all of them, pay attention to polls. Some may ignore polls - I have experience with that - but they all at least take notice. Those who say they don't are the ones who wear the "liar" term so gratuitously thrown about in this campaign.

There is nothing wrong with paying attention to polls. There is no crime in carrying out what the electorate wants. Indeed, the electorate is unforgiving of politicians who throw obvious caution to the wind.

Once the post-mortem is complete, Mr. Tory's biggest boob won't have been that he took a principled approach to the wrong side of a losing argument, rather it was never principled in the first place. It was, pure and simple, an election strategy based on a gamble that public opinion was either misunderstood or that it was on the cusp of change. Need proof?

Only when it became clear he, and not Mr. McGuinty, was the one to misunderstand public opinion, or the roots of multiculturalism hadn't (yet) dealt such a hand, did Mr. Tory do what all politicians do; he looked for a way to unhook himself and still save face. The problem for Mr. Tory is voters see through it, and the message is about to be loud and clear.

The minute - no actually the second - I heard John Tory speak the words faith based school funding, I immediately thought of the decade-old Hunt-Wesson fiasco in which the ever popular brand of Big John beans was translated, without testing, for the Quebec market as Gros Jos.

Loosely translated, for those who don't know, the term Gros Jos is French slang for big boobs. And that about sums up my opinion of the big boob, whoever he/she was, behind the faith based school funding strategy.

Unavoidable mistakes and unintended consequences are one thing, but this, this is something else. That testing wasn't done, as astonishing as even that may seem, is not the issue.