04.20.2010 09:52 PM

The gift that keeps giving: Garry Breitkreuz through the years

  • “MP Garry Breitkreuz said giving gays human rights protection would “open the avenue” to them going into schools to promote their lifestyle.” – Toronto Star, Oct. 14, 1994
  • “Saskatchewan MP Garry Breitkreuz says by funding the NFB, the government is allowing homosexuality to be promoted in elementary and secondary schools. “Where is the government’s common sense – in the sewer with these videos?” Breitkreuz said in a statement yesterday.” – Star, Nov. 10, 1994
  • “Millions of pellet guns and air-powered rifles — often used for target practice or hunting squirrels — will soon be declared firearms and require gun licences, according to the Canadian Alliance. Garry Breitkreuz, a Saskatchewan Alliance MP, charges the Liberals plan to keep the change secret until after the Nov. 27 vote.” – National Post, Nov. 18, 2000
  • “In the Fifties, buggery was a criminal offence. Now it’s a requirement to receive benefits from the federal government.” Garry Breitkreuz, National Post, Nov. 21, 2000
  • “Breitkreuz says the fundamental question of fetal rights must be determined before Parliament can address what he calls “the atrocities now occurring” in the field of reproductive technologies.” – Star, Feb. 12, 2001
  • “A Saskatchewan Conservative MP is coming under fire for his starring role at a gun lobby dinner in the Greater Toronto area next month where the raffle prize is a Beretta semi-automatic handgun. Garry Breitkreuz is the guest speaker at the Canadian Shooting Sports Association’s (CSSA) annual general meeting and dinner on April 18 in Mississauga, where he’s to be lauded for his private member’s bill to abolish Canada’s controversial long-gun registry and relax rules on prohibited and restricted weapons.” – Star, March 19, 2009

16 Comments

  1. Walkswithcoffee says:

    The point is not that people say the strangest things, everyone does, it’s that they keep saying them even after the flaws have been pointed out.

    Cheers, Eugene Parks

  2. Luke says:

    I think it goes beyond just saying them after the flaw(s) have been pointed out.

    I think it’s the fact that someone keeps electing this guy.

    When I speak to my fellow party members on the issue of re-energizing the party and how to make gains in the west, I simply say that if this is the type of guy they elect in the west, time after time, than A) I don’t think there’s anything we can do, and B) I don’t want their vote.

  3. Martin says:

    So, in his world, the chiefs of police are…what, sycophantically sucking up to the opposition? Like that does them any good?

    You know, I have always been a little skeptical about the specifics of this registry, as someone who grew up hunting in the west. But then I saw some of the KOOKY literature recently put out by the pro-gun groups. Their message has now gone beyond the traditional “rural folks use long guns as tools, not weapons” to include NRA-type “you have the right to protect yourself (with a gun)” messages. That lost me completely.

    Go, Garry, go.

  4. parnel says:

    These quotes say more about harper and his cons for allowing him to get his noimination papers every election.

  5. Jim says:

    Hopefully this doesn’t miscast me as some homophobic whack-job, but I actually found the buggery quote to be pretty funny. He did intend it as an over-the-top joke, right?

    Also, while I disagree with the sentiment, his first quote was fairly prescient:

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-to-introduce-more-explicit-sex-education-in-schools/article1540642/

    Stopped clock and all that, I guess. This is NOT an endorsement of Breitkreuz’s world view, just some food for thought.

  6. auntie-em-m says:

    As I watch the extreme teabagging ‘freedom to openly carry guns’ struggle in the USA and hear about Breitkreuz’ latest armed gaffe, I realize that Alberta firewall does not cover the US border. Pity, that.

  7. Pathrik74 says:

    Check out this story on Jason Kenney Privacy Act violations!

    http://rabble.ca/news/2010/04/galloway-ban-story-told-via-e-mail

  8. Paul says:

    Do any of you actually know anything about the firearms registry?

    • Warren says:

      No, nothing. Absolutely nothing. None of us. So why don’t you fill us in?

      Personally, I only grew up around guns, in a military family, own firearm(s), know how to use them, and found the registration process fast, easy and free.

      But what do I know? Inform us.

  9. Bill Templeman says:

    Warren, shouldn’t we really celebrate the likes of Garry Breitkreuz? I heard David Frum on the Current a few weeks ago proclaiming –rather sensibly I thought– that the ascendancy of the tea party loonies, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, et.al. in the US means that the conservative movement in that country will stay fractured for years as sensible conservatives (not an oxymoron) continue to distance themselves from the Crazies. Frum seems to understand how movements and politics work. He cited Canada as an example of a place where the radical fringe keep conservatives out of government for 10 years. Maybe we need more Breitkreuzs? More wet suits? More speeches on jet skis?

    • Derek Lipman says:

      Bill,

      Isn’t it intriguing how David Frum and the right wing intelligentsia are now quick to distance themselves from the same fanatics who helped them push a neoconservative agenda throughout the 1980s through the 2000s?

      Frum is hiding from the real truth, which is that the true failure of the Republican Party was not necessarily the dogmatism of the fringe, but the implementation of narrow-minded,neoconservative free-market gospel which got the United States deeper and deeper into the economic morass they seemingly cannot get out of.

      The relationship between elitist neocons like Frum, and the religious and fundamentalist right was always a marriage of convenience, but it was one embraced by the Frum and others for decades. Without the loonies, they couldn’t win an election. Now that Frum and like-minded thinkers are pariah’s in Washington, they are seeking to distance themselves from those who will further damage their credibility.

      Reagan may have implemented neoconservative economic policies, but he didn’t really pander to the loonie right. The difference is that Bush II actually did…

      Beware of Frum’s apologias. There is no such thing as a “sensible” conservative in the US. That breed (save Scott Brown), died a long time ago.

      • Bill Templeman says:

        Derek, I agree. Frum is opportunistic to the core. But he is also very smart. I don’t share his views in general on the place of government in the economy, taxation, etc., but his observation might help us understand Canada’s neocons, as the species is a trans-border phenomenon. Harper has done a marvelous job at muzzling his own radical crazies in and outside of the CPC. I have been waiting for the egregious bigotry of the more radical Reformers to break free of the Harper Lockup, but I think you will agree that, compared to the Reform days, there has been relatively little for Liberals to shoot at. So what? So there might be some merit to tracking breakouts of radical right blathering as an indicator that the Harper muzzle is beginning to break down. Might it be possible that the more craziness we hear in Canada from the rad right, the more likely it is that the CPC is losing control? Hmmmm…wishful thinking?.

        On a separate tangent, didn’t Frum quote stats on the Current to the effect that the Tea-Party radicals are rejected by a huge majority of Republicans?

Leave a Reply to Walkswithcoffee Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.