For all the outraged Canadians including all you so-called “conservatives” and those who pretend to savor and value “free speech”. And for those who just can’t get over how difficult free speech is for conservatives and especially conservative women, having just seen the evidence left on Ann Coulter’s trail following her Canadian speaking tour, and who now suddenly see how dreadfully intolerant and embarrassing and shameful Canadians on the liberal-left can be, and how completely intolerant and actually radically fascist some on the far-left at our taxpayer-funded colleges actually are when it comes to conservatives being allowed to speak and write things for public consumption: you only need to live a day — or to appease all you tender Canadian souls who are ever so threatened by “harsh/hateful language” — a week in my shoes.
I started this web site called ProudToBeCanadian (no liberal even thought of registering that web site domain name —it took me, a conservative), which I did partially to give Canadian conservatives a place where they can at once feel the warm embrace of conservatism — and yet also feel at home. But also to prove just how utterly intolerant liberals and leftists generally were in real life. To expose them as the farce they were and obviously still are (I guess I haven’t succeeded yet!). And to clearly demonstrate and delineate the difference between liberals and conservatives. In some cases, for huge numbers of liberalism-bathed Canadians, to explain this and show what actual mainstream conservative thinking was all about …for the very first time. I knew it would drive liberals and the progressives into a spitting rage solely because the site would be called ProudToBeCanadian and yet be a totally conservative web site.
But the rest would drive them over the top.
One of the first things I did in 2003 was to start posting — under contract with Ann Coulter through her agent — Ann Coulter’s weekly column, right on the site, along with my ever so outlandish conservative blog thoughts and other more lucid and erudite American and Canadian conservative or at least conservative-tolerant columnists’ columns. From that very day, the barrage of liberal intolerance and 
intemperate criticisms filled the site’s blog comments, my email inbox, and in snail mails to my home, and even phone calls —from the outraged, the aggrieved, the off-put, the disgusted, the rabidly anti-conservatives, socialists, the CBC, the self-titled “hate speech” monitors (which I value as much as grade school hall monitors), and self-anointed “human rights” arbiters, who all converged on me daily — or once again to appease those tender sentimental and soft-spoken Canadians — weekly.
Well call me an awesome prescient pseudo-God (or non-religious, nonthreatening demi-icon!) of some sort, but my wildest dreams came true. Golly what a shocker. Not.
Liberals and all leftists immediately found me and all of it to be an act of utter treason and contempt. Contemptuous of Canada and what they (the “real Canadians”) deemed to be “Canadian values”, which is actually a sort of liberal-fascist code for socialist or liberal or progressive, or worse. You can’t be conservative AND Canadian! Are you serious?!!!! Ann Coulter? —Are you f——ing serious?! You can’t say mean things about the CBC! What are you a [g-d] American? You can’t demand we go back to private enterprise and like go back to like the middle ages! We love abortion! It’s our right! Homophobe! Racist! Nazi! Fascist! Idiot! Moron! Retard! Our health care is faaaaantastic! You can’t say THAT, or THAT, and you especially can’t say THAT! It was all totally incongruous and totally annoying for them, several demanding — DEMANDING — that I change the name (and/or simply quit, close shop, move to Texas, “face our wrath”, or in some other manner, manifestly, shut the hell up, all of you). This past week’s Ann Coulter trials and tribulations in the news have been mellow for me. Been there. Done that. Live it daily.
So of course I kept going. Even “conservatives” started demanding I drop Ann Coulter’s columns (and other columns too) simply because it was making them feel “uncomfortable” when she was being hit by the liberal media for saying something “outlandish” — which in turn was because they weren’t actually conservatives at all — they were progressive conservatives. Being Canadian and never having been exposed to anything but left-wing and, for “balance”, further let-wing points of view on the CBC and CTV and the newspapers, they didn’t even know there was anything more to life than being liberal, left, and progressive. But that’s a slight digression.
So it is with some degree of haughty laughter that I sit here watching all this “outrage” unfold in various blogs and in all the media (the very same media that has repeatedly bashed Ann Coulter for being a useless has-been, hello National Post). I’m the only one who isn’t the least bit surprised, it seems.
And as far as I know, I’m still the only media in Canada that pays for her weekly column and has done so, unfailingly, for every week of the past six plus years.
I’m only really surprised at how adept my colleagues in the blogosphere and those crack investigative reporters in the mainstream media (and even non-mainstream media) are at ensuring they never once even mention — even in passing — that Ann Coulter’s column has been posted here at PTBC every week, and has been for six years. Right here in Canada. It does seem germane to all the current arguments. In fact it seems to be a vital fact, to me.
And yes, they do all know. I mean if liberals and socialists from all walks of life have managed to find it, and find my email address, and take time out to send me all those lovely examples of liberal-left tolerance and understanding, then obviously “conservatives” know too. And for those who are truly ignorant of what’s available in Canada, there’s always been Google. Prior to this week’s Ann Coulter Canadian tour, you couldn’t possibly Google “Ann Coulter” and “Canada” (or even just “Ann Coulter” alone) — without hitting on at least one link to PTBC, since there are only a very few web sites that post her column, and none in Canada (on any regular basis, even illegitimately). I know because I have kept testing that theory over the six years I’ve been posting it, just to see when other Canadian media might see it my way, and join me in giving her a platform in Canada for Canadians (it never happened. Not on a permanent basis at least, every week, for years, rain or shine, profit or no profit, anyway).
So. You believe in freedom so much? Believe that freedom and free speech is worth preserving, and even fighting for in this country? Believe that even if you disagree with Ann Coulter or don’t love everything she says, she and other columnists like her should be provided a platform if one so chooses to provide it, as I have? Then buck up, Canadians. Put your money and your Canadian pride and you heart and soul — where your suddenly and shockingly self-righteous and loud mouths are.
And conservatives, you might want to cut the crap. Give me credit. I’ve risked it all with this site. My reputation, my standing in the community. My family and friends. My job prospects and business dealings in the future. My time, and yes, my money, and more. So yeah go ahead and point out where you can find her column and others like Ann Coulter’s which, as I say, convey mainstream conservative free speech — “with bite” as I say. Yes even if it does detract from your own self interests and your own stage — your own blog and your own web sites and newspapers. I can almost rationalize all those liberal newspapers being reluctant to admit that there exists some sort of Canadian media which actually seems to enjoy and agree with Ann Coulter’s political thinking to the extent that they pay to post/host her column every week — and that it has actually succeeded for this long. It would be like admitting that it is indeed possible to be “Proud To Be Canadian” and yet be conservative at the same time, and that there is really a different point of view in Canada besides “progressive”, because after all, the liberal media has a vested interest and an agenda in not doing that. But the other folks? The conservatives — or so-calleds? No, sorry. I can’t rationalize that at all.
Since this Ann Coulter and free-speech debate started this past week, I’ve received exactly $5 worth of support. And that was from a guy in Denmark. And I’ve received more nasty mail than supportive mail. It’s hard to take all the “outrage” seriously at that rate.
Speaking and thinking in pale pastels is what got us here. You’re once again proving to be just small, meek, Canadian talkers, instead of speaking and thinking and acting in bold colors. And I mean the conservatives among you. The rest of you are behaving exactly as expected — as hypocrites, liars, and big, foul-mouthed, intolerant louts; like Canadian liberals.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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