I’ll never forget the night I went to Conrad Black’s house mansion for a party honoring Mark Steyn and his just-released book, America Alone.
Ezra Levant had added my name to the guest list, I think, because otherwise, I had no business being there. I was a subscriber to the Western Standard, but so were thousands of people. The “do” was meant for the magazine’s bigshot businessman donors and supporters, and for major writers like David Warren, George Jonas and Michael Coren.
As I tottered up the seeminly endless driveway in the high heels I dusted off once a year, I found myself humming “If They Could See Me Now” from Sweet Charity.
At one point in my life, I might (had I not been too hungover) have dragged my (much smaller then) butt this far north of Bloor to picket outside Lord Black’s place because — well, I don’t know why, but he’s a leftist fantasy Capitalist Villain right out of Central Casting, with everything but the monocle.
I never expected I’d be approaching his home with anything but malice in mind.
I’ve told this story on my old blog, so I won’t rehash every detail. But for my current purposes, I want to reiterate that that party was the most “diverse” event I’ve ever attended in proudly “multicultural” Toronto, where “ethnic” festivals vie for press attention and white liberal cash every single weekend, and (yawn!) 150 languages are spoken (if not terribly well understood.)
Mingling in Black’s parlor were whites and blacks, Christians and Jews, Hindus and Sikhs. I learned later than the blind Asian woman with the seeing eye dog was the current Mrs. Jonas (the former Mrs. Jonas being our hostess, Lady Black — jeepers, how Euro-sophisticated does that sound, eh?)
I recount this story this morning merely to report that while nowhere near as glamorous, the turnout at Ezra Levant’s book signing last night was kinda diverse too.
The location being “redneck hicksville” Calgary and not Toronto, the mix wasn’t quite as colorful, but I was still struck by the faces in line. I count a black guy and an Asian dude, and this is just a mid-way glimpse of what Ezra says was an impressive turnout.
Not bad at all. Certainly more “diverse” (not to mention a bit less “white collar”) than many United Church or NDP gatherings of an evening.
And particularly impressive for a “white supremacist sympathizer”, no?
