There is something deeply disturbing about Andrew Scheer's grim determination not to surrender his job, after being humiliated by Justin Trudeau, the man he hates more than any other.
For this is pathetic.
“Some people have asked why am I still fighting. Why I don’t just give up?” he said.
“Because I can’t and I won’t.”
And this is desperate.
In my last post I looked at the ugly way Andrew Scheer reacted to the swearing in of Justin Trudeau's new cabinet.
And I suggested he was still bitter at the way Trudeau had humiliated him.
But now I think something else was also bothering him.
He was hearing the sound of sharpening knives, as an issue that helped sink his campaign came back to bite him again.
Andrew Scheer is looking a lot more humble than he was just two days ago, when he described his humiliating loss as a " first step" to victory.
And said he couldn't wait to go after Justin Trudeau again.
Now the sounds of sharpening knives seem to have tempered his wild enthusiasm.
But don't be fooled, he's still the same Ugly American.
As you know, I have been trying for months to get the MSM to write about the relationship between Andrew Scheer and the former Alliance MP Larry Spencer, a man so homophobic he wanted to jail gay people.
I wrote one post after the other, I tweeted again and again. But nobody believed me or gave me the time of day.
I was getting ready to head out to Saskatchewan to try to track down Spencer, if he was still alive.
When it finally happened.
I can only imagine how desperate Andrew Scheer must have been to think he could solve his big bigot problem, with a hastily arranged late night scrum in a plane heading for British Columbia.
But you can see the desperation in his eyes.
And not surprisingly the hasty scrum didn't work out well.
In fact it was an absolute disaster.
Almost every day for more than two years Andrew Scheer has attacked Justin Trudeau in the vilest and most cowardly manner.
But now that the Liberals are exposing the bigotry and religious fanaticism of one Con candidate after the other, he's not happy, as you can see from the look on his face.
And from the way the Con campaign is going up in flames.
It had been over a week since the Liberals dug up a tape of Andrew Scheer comparing LGBT Canadians to dogs.
And about four days since his Cons were caught lying about abortion in Quebec.
But still the cowardly Scheer remained huddled with his advisers, and refusing to show his face.
Until at last he was forced to hold a newser, and what a disaster it was.
I've tried hard to explain why I find Andrew Scheer's religious homophobia so deeply disturbing. I think it's important to do that because it explains so many things about Scheer, including his diseased hatred for Justin Trudeau.
But it's not easy to portray something that ugly.
Scheer knows how to hide his true feelings behind a creepy smile.
So I'm really glad that the Liberals dug up this video of Scheer during the same sex marriage debate.
When I last wrote about Andrew Scheer he was marching in an Acadian parade in New Brunswick.
And being made to look like a fool by Justin Trudeau.
As well as a loser and a serial liar.
And although Scheer was missing from this parade in Montreal yesterday.
It's called "conversion therapy" It's a pseudo scientific practice that uses high pressure psychological techniques to try to turn gay people into straight ones.
Some call it "pray away the gay" because of the many religious fanatics who spend their time trying to "save" LGBT people from themselves.
But in most cases what it amounts to is nothing less than child torture.
A recent Hollywood movie called Boy Erased, is based on a true story, and makes that only too clear.
It's hard to believe that it has been four years already, since the Canadian actress and producer Ellen Page came out at a gay right's conference in Las Vegas. And delivered a powerful anti-bullying message.
Because for people like me who had to fight bullies before I fought Cons, it was such a great moment it seems like yesterday.
So I'm glad to see that Page hasn't lost her fighting spirit, when she appeared on the Late Show last night.
And took aim at these two anti-gay bigots.
It's the nightmare that should be keeping us awake at night. The real nightmare at the border.
Not the asylum seekers who are harmless, but the sinister right-wingers of America, whose toxic hate is leaking across that border, poisoning our politics.
And threatening to turn our country into a jungle.
But as least more Canadians in this hopelessly complacent country seem to be wakening up to the monster in their midst.
Like many Canadians I have long wondered why Andrew Scheer hates Justin Trudeau so much.
For hate him he does, with a passion that far exceeds what we might expect from an opposition leader in Canada, and borders on the maniacal.
I have tried to find out whether there is anything in Scheer's past that could help explain his disturbing behaviour. But that wasn't easy, because no politician has tried to bury the past as much as he has.
But now at last I think I have found it.
It's the day of the Pride Parade in Toronto, and in just about an hour or so, thousands of members of the rainbow army, and their straight allies, will march down Yonge Street, while about a million people cheer them on.
And it will be what it has always been, a community's celebration of survival in a world full of bigots.
And a chance to send out a message of solidarity to the LGBT people all over that world who are still suffering and dying from the hate that kills.
But this year Pride Month in Canada has also made it only too clear which parties support the human rights of gay Canadians, and which one doesn't.
If Andrew Scheer had a fantasy university it would almost certainly be a nightmare version of Trinity Western University.
For it has a so-called covenant that blatantly discriminates against LGBT students.
And he is a religious fanatic and ghastly homophobe who chooses to treat gay Canadians as if they didn't exist.
As did his Great Fallen Leader Stephen Harper who used to recruit many of his parliamentary interns from that hideous university.
You don't see or hear much from Doug Ford these days. The Team Harper gang who are running his campaign are clearly planning to muzzle their monkey.
And turn his bus into a fortress where the media aren't welcome.
And who can blame them eh?
The last thing they need is the big gorilla trying to answer complicated questions with simplistic slogans he can barely memorize, and looking even more ignorant.
Especially since this point at least, Ford is heading for a massive majority.
But as if this Gong Show, or Kong show, wasn't scary enough, now we find out the Fordzilla and his supporters are channeling another Con ape.
It's now a recurring nightmare. The hellish vision of Doug Ford swinging from the CN tower and bellowing like King Kong:
"I'm da Premier of Ontario!!!!"
Now that the polls show him apparently heading for a gorilla of a majority.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, then there's this other poll suggesting that men are mostly responsible for what would be an act of collective madness.
Which I found even more disturbing.
For only that could explain a front page like this one...
I watched the first debate of the Ontario PC leadership candidates live on Twitter yesterday afternoon at work, instead of watching the tape on TV several hours later when I got home.
Which was annoying, since I was occasionally interrupted, and missed parts of it.
But as it turns out that wasn't a totally bad thing, because it was without a doubt the worst political debate I have ever seen.
And when it finally ended I had this warning for my Twitter followers.
OK I have to admit it, Jason Kenney would NOT be my first choice to play Santa Claus.
And I did think he was just a little too chubby, and not quite green enough to play the Grinch.
But surprise surprise, that is who he is playing.
When I heard that Justin Trudeau was going to deliver an apology to LGBT Canadians I arranged to get the day off.
I wanted to watch all the speeches, and hear what the survivors had to say about those dark times when gay people had no rights, and were treated like criminals.
But I wasn't sure how I might react.
Would I be moved like Justin? Or would I explode with anger at those stories of injustice?
So when I finally watched the speeches yesterday I was surprised by my reaction...
