Toronto Sun readers can't read

Or at least not according to former Liberal staffer Ian Davey, who had the paper's editors foaming at the mouth this weekend with some less than flattering statements about Sun subscribers.

The Toronto Sun does not like the Liberal Party. That is not exactly news, so Michael Ignatieff’s former chief of staff Ian Davey should have known he was picking a fight when he told CTV this weekend that the Sun was “a newspaper for people who can’t read.” The Sun’s editors took the bait, and their reaction has made for some fun in the blogosphere today.

The Toronto Sun ran this editorial, which called Davey a “smug little Toronto elitist.” But “we thank him for being the idiot that he is,” say the Sun’s editors, because he’s apparently giving the public a reason not to vote Liberal: "it is nigh impossible to believe … that Ignatieff himself doesn’t think the same way.” To “the Liberal elite, you are the underclass,” the editors tell their readers, suggesting they “find a Liberal at your local library who will read this editorial to you. They are easy to spot. They’ll have their heads up their arse.” Luckily, even “illiterates know how to make an X on an election ballot,” and it’s no secret in which box the Sun would like you to put it.

Maclean’s blogger Andrew Potter was not impressed, and says the Sun’s editorial reads “like it was written by Sarah Palin’s speechwriter the morning after a fruitless night spent trying to get served a drink in the West Village.” He then goes on to rate this weekend’s editorials according to grade school reading levels, with the Toronto Star’s column calling for a G20 inquiry topping the report card, and the Sun’s Davey editorial bottoming it out as an example of “lowbrow newspapering.”

Stephen Harper’s spokesman Dmtri Soudas also slammed Ignatieff for Davey’s comments, prompting the Globe and Mail’s Robert Silver to blog “These are the new rules of Ottawa; not only do current chiefs of staff speak on behalf of their bosses, (but) former chiefs of staff … reflect fully on their former bosses.” Silver is perfectly fine with those rules, especially if they mean that he can hold Harper to account for anything former Conservative staffer Tom Flanagan says. Flanagan is now an outspoken, not to mention controversial, columnist for the Globe.