Angry in the Great White North

But for the smirk factor, this is serious business. Those advertising signs might be seen by up to 150,000 passengers in a day. Thankfully, the average rider of a GO train is well-educated well-paid white-collar office worker, so I don't think most people are going to look at the ad and think, "Hey, maybe there's something to that baby-eating thing."

But then I don't think the intention was to insult the prime minister, but rather to insult the GO Transit riders -- an insult to their intelligence, and for many riders, an insult aimed at their political leanings. Remember that GO Transit services the Toronto suburbs (the so-called "905 belt"), those areas where the Conservatives made a breakthrough in the last election. The Liberal bastion of Toronto itself use the TTC for mass transit, an entirely different system.

So I wonder if the vandal who put up the ad was really aiming to insult the riders, and not the Conservatives. "Hey, you right-wing suburban neo-con SUV-driving drones, here's what I think of your Bush-lite president wannabe, and there's nothing you can do about it!"

If so, I think it is important that GO Transit and Exclusive Advertising handle this incident in a very public manner. The public was the target of the smear, not the politicians. As such, the public deserves to see that those responsible are held to account.