I rarely feel moved to comment on some random caller who dials a talk radio station, but I can’t help but wonder what the guy who phoned Peter Shurman during his 9 AM hour on 640 Friday was smoking. (It's legal now, by the way.)

He began by complaining that he’s disgusted in the way the station has taken an obvious turn to the left.
 
What?
 
Sure, Supriya may lean that way, but Mike Stafford as a Liberal? I don’t think so. The rest of the line-up doesn’t fit the mold either. Matt Gurney used to work for the National Post, hardly the bastion of the left.
 
Tasha Kheiriddin, while she’s a lot more even-handed, is the one time regional leader of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation. Which means she can’t be tarred with that brush either.
 
I’m not entirely sure where Kelly Cutrara lands on this scale, but John Oakley, Alex Pierson, and Charles Adler never hide that they're on the conservative side of the political spectrum. And to accuse Shurman – a former Tory MPP – of going left is beyond absurd.
 
So what was this guy’s real complaint? He was upset that both Sue-Anne Levy and Lou Schizas were dumped by the station. To his credit, Shurman related that those decisions were above his pay grade and then quickly moved on.
 
Which got me to thinking (always a dangerous thing.) Of the places that deal with news and issues in Canada, I can’t come up with any truly left-leaning stations in the city other than the CBC - and perhaps some of the lesser heard college outlets. While 1010 and 640 do tend to have more conservative hosts, neither go anywhere near as far as their counterparts in the U.S., which often skew rabidly to the right. Compared to them, I think we’re a little bit more down the centre here.
 
As the Americans appear to be on the road to another Civil War down south, I just hope nothing happens here to change that. Especially with a divisive federal election campaign coming in 2019.