Kathleen Wynne visited Humber College on Friday and relayed a bizarre and disturbing message to the young and ethnically diverse student body, if you don’t vote then old white people will decide the election. She even put in a plug for them to vote for her.

Even after listening to the audio several times, even after taking into account what I am sure she felt was a breezy and light-hearted tone, the words themselves are shocking coming from a politician. More than shocking they are incredibly divisive, ageist and said in another context by another politician they would have been denounced as racist.

You don’t have to believe me, listen to the audio here.

Wynne’s message is not only clear, it is calculated. While at an official government event, not a campaign event, she is encouraging young people to vote and trying to scare them that if they don’t do it then those old white people will vote for a conservative.

Years of election data show that Wynne is right, older people, of all races, are more likely to vote than younger people. She also knows from years of polling data that young people are more likely to vote for a left wing politician like her.

This is the type of thing people expect from professors these days, like Dr. Michael Cappello who recently gave a lecture at Trent University on why it is okay to be against whiteness.

We don’t expect this from elected leaders, especially not one working in her capacity as premier.

When Wynne said these comments the room was filled with reporters, cameras, phones with recording apps on them and yet there hasn’t been much coverage of this. That’s shameful but it is also telling that in the coming election most of the media can be expected to look the other way at Wynne’s mistakes.