Angry in the Great White North

When Denis Coderre pulled the pin on a grenade and lobbed it into the heart of the Liberal Party on Monday, the main charge in the blast was that Michael Ignatieff was being advised by a Toronto-centric team with no appreciation of Quebec realities.

This group has been called the Rosedale Gang for quite some time, even before crypto-conservative Michael Ignatieff was officially annointed party leader at the faux convention in May:

A national Liberal convention set for Thursday in Vancouver has attracted a disappointingly small number of delegates.

The party chose Vancouver in recognition of a need to build support in the west. Since becoming interim leader in December, leader Michael Ignatieff, a Toronto-area MP, has visited B.C. twice, Alberta three times, Manitoba twice and Saskatchewan once.

He has also executed big staffing changes in the Opposition leader's office, installing his own people -- a group that has alternatively been dubbed the Rosedale Gang, in recognition of its Toronto roots, and the Bloc Torontois.

Interesting choice of label.  Not the Scarborough Seven or the Etobicoke Elite.  The Rosedale Gang.  Rosedale, of course, is the ultra-upper class enclave in the heart of Toronto:

The Bridle Path's houses are bigger, and Forest Hill's and Lawrence Park's lots are more grand, but Rosedale and its northern neighbour, Moore Park, remain tops in Toronto for their class. The massive houses appear to take up all the available air space within their property lines. There's a long history of the city's notables making their homes here at one point or another, with everyone from Tom Thomson (on Severn Creek) to Ken Thomson (8 Castle Frank Road).

Rosedale has long served as the shining Camelot upon which generations of hopeful Bay Streeters have pinned their hopes. A house in this 'hood signifies the owner's arrival like no other in the city.

How unfortunate for Michael Ignatieff, who has been trying to present an image of a man in touch with regular Canadians despite being a direct descendent of Russian nobility and himself a professor at Harvard.  That his advisors are known to one and all as The Rosedale Gang reinforces that sense of being completely out of touch with Canadians everywhere, not just Quebec.

But Denis Coderre did refer to Quebec in particular, so why not do a quick comparison of the average Rosedale resident versus the average Quebec resident:

In Rosedale, 91.5% of the people speak English most often and at home, and 1.3% speak French.  In Quebec, 81% speak French, and 10% English.

In Rosedale, the average family income is $386,076, while in Quebec, it is $74,762.

In Rosedale, the average cost of a home is $1,014,480, while in Quebec, the average cost of a home is $182,399.

Maybe Denis Coderre was onto something when he said the Rosedale Gang did not understand Quebec.  Indeed, I think the view outside your home is Rosedale is unlike anything anyone experiences in just about any part of this country, not just Quebec.