Ontario politicians rock Raptors gear in legislature

The NBA Finals start on Thursday in Toronto, and Raptors fever is spreading throughout the city as the series approaches.

Fans were dancing in the streets on Saturday night, and on Monday, with the smoke cleared from the party, it was time for those fans that are never shy to jump on whatever makes them look most popular to don the We The North branded clothing: politicians!

During Monday morning’s Ontario Legislature, a number of MMPs took to the chamber with their Raptors gear on.

If you’re a fan of the “jersey over the dress shirt” look, do I ever have a thread of photographs for you.

Starting us off is Roman Baber, of the Progressive Conservatives.

Can’t quite make out the number on the jersey, but it looks close enough to #55 for me to guess he’s wearing a Rafael Araujo throwback. If you woke up today thinking “I bet I don’t see a conservative politician in a Hoffa jersey,” you were dead wrong.

Up next is Wayne Gates of the NDP.

I’m not afraid to say that Wayne is absolutely killing it, out here looking like Ned Flanders in a Kyle Lowry purple throwback. The tie is even pretty close to matching. Kevin Yarde in the background appears to also be rocking a Lowry in red with no tie. Relaxed yet focused.

We swing back to the PCs, for Stan Cho.

Cho elects to keep the jacket on overtop of his jersey, but we can pretty safely presume that’s a Vince Carter 15 poking out the front. Perhaps the jacket is there to safe keep anyone that wants to point out that people hated Vince after he left, though Cho could maybe pass it off as an Amir Johnson jersey when pressed.

To keep things even, we go back to the NDP’s Suze Morrison.

Suze: Absolutely.

Where the other MPPs fall back on shirtsleeves and keeping it otherwise business-as-usual with their dress shirts, Morrison has coordinated this jersey with her dress choice and it gives off the impression that this is someone who just straight up wore a Raptors jersey to work. Have to respect the dedication.

Not everyone is a “full jersey” type of person, so we must acknowledge that a few people showed up in Raptors t-shirts as well.

No real compliments to hand out here. Those shirts a very clearly free. Kudos to wearing it to work, I guess, but it doesn’t scream “lifelong fan” in the same way as owning a jersey from the purple era.

Thank you Emma Paling and our friends at Huffpost Canada for the thread of photos, and thank you to the Ontario politicians for never missing an opportunity to appear as close to “normal people” as they can.

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