Focussing on Manning's misuse of the undefined term "elite" is chasing a red herring.

His point about the divide between rural and urban, small-C conservative and small-L liberal, and dare I add north and south (in Canada) is sound, and important. That ignorance, that lack of listening, of respectful communication, is rampant. 

Along with other factors, it gave us ten years of the Harper government, with all the evils that that entailed. The mystery, the dismissal, of The Base, hobbled us.

We continue to ignore this chasm at our peril, and at the peril of our country.