Rocco Rossi’s jump to the Tories leads to epic Twitter fights
The news yesterday that one-time mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi was jumping parties got an angry response from those who had supported him as a Liberal, and a pretty joyous response from those who welcomed him as a Progressive Conservative. Perhaps the most amusing little slap fight that unfolded throughout the day was between Stefan Baranski (who once ran George Smitherman’s mayoral campaign) and Warren Kinsella, who helped Rossi run against Smitherman, Rob Ford and the other candidates. Because both men now find themselves on the opposite side of where they were only a few months ago, there was plenty of ammunition for each man to use, if they were willing to dig up old quotes.
Their Twitter accounts were filled with stuff like this:
Kinsella: Baranski, 09/14/10: “Rossi’s latest gasping bid to gain attention, mired in 4th place & bordering on irrelevance.”
Baranski: Kinsella, 10/14/10: “Rocco put together an amazing team...and plan. He had it all. A coalition...plus...a smart vision.”
Kinsella: Baranski, 09/15/10: Rossi’s political plan “so unrealistic it seems more a hallucination than a workable vision”
Baranksi: Kinsella, 10/14/10: “It was...a privilege to work for Rocco. I guarantee that we haven’t heard the last of him!" True words!
Kinsella: Baranski 09/13/10: “Is Rossi running for Mayor of Toronto or Mayor of Fantasy Island?"
Of course, if this had been happening in the real world instead of Twitter-space, it might have descended in to hair pulling and biting until someone called mom. We’re kind of surprised that Baranski didn’t simply go nuclear with Kinsella’s election day admission that “I voted Rocco Rossi.”
And this is just a small sampling of the meltdown that we saw on Twitter as partisans of both sides hurried to either embrace or dismiss Rossi. Bruce Davis, Smitherman’s campaign manager, said he might just find himself working for Rossi’s Liberal opponent in Eglinton-Lawrence, Mike Colle. As for us, we’ll be paying special attention to the results in Eglinton-Lawrence this October.
• Warren Kinsella [Twitter]
• Stefan Baranski [Twitter]
(Image: Rossi, Rocco Rossi)
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