’Put that in your pipe, you left-wing kooks’
Adorned in typically flamboyant pink-and-white patterned silk, Don Cherry, the colourful co-host of Coach’s Corner on Hockey Night in Canada, spoke Tuesday at the new Toronto city council’s inaugural meeting as a special guest of Mayor Rob Ford. “I’m wearing pinko for all the pinkos out there that ride bicycles and everything, I thought I’d get it in,” said Cherry, who went on to blast “left-wing pinko newspapers,” and praise Rob Ford by saying he’s “honest, he’s truthful … he’s going to be the greatest mayor this city has ever seen.” The speech sparked a flurry of activity on social networking sites like Twitter, and a number of councilors wore pink to work on Wednesday to criticize what they see as an unnecessarily divisive speech that sets a negative tone for the start of Ford’s tenure as mayor. The pink trend is catching on—two Toronto groups, Spacing magazine and the cycling organization Biking Toronto, have already started selling “pinko” buttons and t-shirts to “commemorate” the speech.
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