First it was Sarah Palin, now it's Ann Coulter. It seems like as of late Calgary has been playing host to some of the most controversial right-wing lightning rods on the continent. Personally I can't believe that we're giving these people soapboxes to stand on. For me it's not so much about their ideas, it's about what they're using to back up their arguments: nothing of substance. Some of it is downright wrong. I don't think that these people should be censored (even The Globe and Mail agrees with that), but I am disappointed that they're being given a public platform on which to stand.

Having said that, let's take a look at the related headlines from The Globe and Mail:

Sarah Palin sees eye-to-eye with Albertans in Calgary speech

Spurned in Ottawa, Ann Coulter gets a big welcome from Calgary

I am embarrassed to be an Albertan when I see headlines like this. But why should I be? To read between the lines, you'd think that Calgary gave these women the keys to the city and threw parades for them that put the Stampede to shame. Why is it that a speech attended by a few hundred people gets distorted into some kind of city or province-wide euphoria? Note to The Globe's headline editor: as a Calgarian and as an Albertan, I do not see eye-to-eye with Sarah Palin, and I most certainly did not welcome Ann Coulter.

I find it ironic that the reason that Coulter was chased away from speaking at the University of Ottawa was because of fears that she might make inflammatory comments towards identifiable groups of people, and yet that's exactly the kind of thing I see people doing when making comments about Calgary and Alberta on The Globe's website. I'm not trying to be smug, but let's take a look at some of these comments from the Coulter article:

Calgary, Coulter, Conservatism! Wow! What a perfect match! If Stephen Harper had joined it would've been an icing on the cake.

Calgary and Coulter - a perfect match.

Of course Calgary would welcome her, there isn't a bigger bunch of american wannabes any were else in the world.Even their hockey team is an american reject and notice Alberta's oil is only for us markets. Yup she their kind of woman LOUD and STUPID. Yehaw

I'm sure Calgary will roll out the red carpet for Coulter.

Most of the people of Calgary are used to worshiping American oil companies, I'm sure they'll have no problem prostrating themselves at the feet of corporate America's fascist little fairy princess.

"Most of the people of Calgary...." Uh-huh. Sounds like this person is scooping "facts" out of the same latrine as Palin and Coulter. I'd laugh if any of these types of comments originated from the U of O. That would be deliciously hypocritical.