11.24.2012 09:25 PM

In Sunday’s Sun: are you offended that we’re bored?

Notwithstanding an impressive body of evidence to the contrary, politicians are human. Humans being flawed, politicians are also flawed.

Politicians say dumb things, for example. They try not to, but they do.

David McGuinty said something dumb this week. At a House of Commons natural resources committee get-together on Tuesday, the Ottawa-area Liberal MP accused Conservative members of Parliament of being “shills” for Big Oil, and suggested “they should really go back to Alberta.”

Hoo boy! Assorted Conservative MPs immediately commenced rending of garments and gnashing of teeth, and declared how deeply offended they were. Out in Calgary Centre, Conservative Party byelection candidate Joan Whatserface — who is hapless, gormless and had previously been more elusive than Sasquatch — suddenly made herself available to the media.

Stephen Harper and Whatserface could barely disguise their glee, as they invoked the Satanic Liberal trifecta: The National Energy Program, David McGuinty and, er, the National Energy Program.

Liberals like me — hailing from Calgary, as I do — were plenty mad at McGuinty for his dumb statement, coming as it did during a byelection that we could win. McGuinty thereafter quit his natural resources critic thing, and issued a poop-eater of an apology that must be read to be believed.

It’s one for the Political Apology History Book, a rather thick tome.

32 Comments

  1. smelter rat says:

    And then along came Justin with a really stupid apology.

  2. Eric Weiss says:

    Liberals dig up old comment from Harper, say it’s fair game and conservatives cry foul.

    Conservatives dig up old comments from Trudeau, say it’s fair game and Liberals cry foul.

    Partisans slay me.

    It all keeps the chattering classes occupied, but does it concern the average Canadian who doesn’t spend all day on webpage message boards? I doubt it.

    • Lance says:

      “………….but does it concern the average Canadian…………….”

      It does when it is framed in a soundbite via a political ad, like, oh I don’t know, the last two elections.

  3. Reality Sucks says:

    Stephen Harper and Whatserface could barely disguise their glee, as they invoked the Satanic Liberal trifecta: The National Energy Program, David McGuinty and, er, Justin Trudeau.

    Isn’t that Three Strikes against the Liberal party?

  4. Reality Sucks says:

    By invoking the supremacy of his father’s governance of Canada, Justin also justifies the National Energy Program imposed on Alberta. Perhaps he didn’t realize the consequences of his French interview in 2010 when he proclaimed the best recent PMs came from Quebec — his Papa, Mulroney, Chretien, Martin.

    Justin was a student of Literature, but certainly not of History given his surreptitious comments in Quebec only. Intelligent Liberal party members cannot install him as their federal leader because he’s just a political dilettante.

    • bluegreenblogger says:

      That sneaky surreptitious bastard! He snuck into that TV studio, and then, of all the nerve, he surreptitiously spoke in French! In Quebec! How are honest people to know who the traitors are if they speak a foreign language? Then the sneaky surreptitious so-and-so snuck into a leadership race, and into the consciousness of the majority of Canadians over 45, and the sneaky dilletante stole their support away from the Conservatives! Of course, the Liberals must be more intelligent than that, they absolutely MUST take this sage advice.

    • Eric Weiss says:

      If JT thinks Mulroney and Martin were better than Pearson, King, or Borden, then he has a pretty poor grasp of 20th century Canadian history.

  5. J.W. says:

    But seriously Warren have Rae, McGuinty, and Trudeau not learned anything about fighting back?
    The Conservatives always fight back (see Polliviere) right or wrong.
    Alberta stop whining and feeling sorry for yourself; you are being used. And yes the Conservative Alberta backbench with few exceptions are a bunch of sheep, hollering and guffawing on demand, and then they can’t even read their PMO written member statements without stumbling. And then there’s Anders. Grow up Alberta.
    So is Justin, as the Cons keep pulling these so called embarrassments out of the file, is JT going to take the high road like Dion and iggy and now McGuinty? Hey Liberals McGuinty and Justin were both RIGHT. But the Cons set the agenda with a compliant talking points press gallery in Ottawa.

  6. dave says:

    To me, the unfortunate thing abut Mcguinty’s comment on Alberta, is that it took the spotlight off his comment about Conserv MPs being shills for the oil industry.

    • Eric Weiss says:

      Yes, Memebers of Parliament working for the economic interests of their constituency…how shocking. They’re doing what they’re sent to Ottawa to do.

      “Mr. Speaker, it is the duty of every member of parliament to work for his constituents, especially in a case like that when it was a project that created 22 new jobs. The loan was the third loan. Two other loans had been accepted by the Caisse populaire and the fund of the unions in the area. The third loan was from the bank. It was eventually approved. After seven years the loan was paid back every month.

      It is a duty of a member of parliament to create jobs in his riding.”

      Right Hon. Jean Chrétien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Wednesday, May 29, 2002

      http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=1385295&Language=E&Mode=1#Int-256360

      • dave says:

        My take is that McGuinty’spoint is that the constituancy the Conserv MPs work for if the (increasingly foreign owned) oil industry, not the human beings who happen to live in their ridings back home. You,Eric Weiss, seem to be channeling the dishonest twist Conserv politicians are putting on this…how shocking!

        • Eric Weiss says:

          McGuinty didn’t mention their constituents in his statement, or that he cared about Albertans at all. Who’s spinning now?

  7. Peter says:

    Well, if anybody noticed…the Reformacons went nuts….Jason Kenney held a special press conference in his typical self-roighteous sanctimonious elan…so what does that tell you all? The guy hasn’t been even elected leader of the Liberal Party and is he is…2 1/2 years from a federal election…and the Reformacons are out of their mind with ugliness, using hard earned Canadian taxpayer’s dollars to swamp our airwaves with how great this Harper executive it and tripping over themselves to get talking points written by twenty something year olds who follow a master script…

    The Reformacons have a problem..and they know….this kid from Montreal. This son of an icon. Who will face unfair criticism over his birth certificate, may just unite the left at the most crucial time in an 2015 election campaign. Add to the fact that voting Canadians will be far more wiser and astute over Harper’s schemes of voter suppression and “robocalls”…that dog don hunt…and Harper knows…he is people know…and they both knock — the media, Canadians and Elections Canada…and soon the new and improved RCMP…who are telling Harper’s Executive to back off…will all be watching.

    It should be a very interesting time in our country when vigilance will be at a premier.
    History sometimes writes itself…
    And history will not be kind to one Stephen Joseph Harper.

    • billg says:

      Ya, your probably right, uniting 2 right wing political party’s and being the PM for probably 12 years will hurt his historical legacy.

      • Peter says:

        Yeah well, if you can get away with election fraud, “cut and run” by shutting down parliament, completely cripple our democratic system whenever you feel like it, spend Canadian tax dollars on hauling everyone that challenges your wrong doing into court…in other words…time will shall reveal all…and people will talk after Harper no longer can extort, threat and destroy careers…or haven’t you been paying attention about what’s been going on in our country. Harper has also been polled as one of the most unpopular and untrusted PM’s in our history…not just here…but out there in the real world as well. As in 47 on the list of present world leaders.

        • billg says:

          You could change the names in your rant to Trudeau and Chretien and sound like every rabid far right winger in Canada telling us how terrible those PM’s were as well, but, no one really listens to them either. Winning in a democracy is success. And if Mr Harper does it for 12 years then history will say he was successful, because, he was.

  8. Robert Jago says:

    What really bugs me about this whole thing is the number of Liberals out in public doubling down on Trudeau’s and McGuinty’s gaffes. In order for the Liberal Party to gain power again, it needs the West of course, but as importantly it needs minorities. And if there’s one thing that’s sure to scare away minorities, it’s a tribe of homogeneous Liberal insiders cheerleading bigotry.

    • !o! says:

      ‘The West’ isn’t a monolithic thing. In Canadian politics, ‘The West’, or ‘Western Canada’ as a couple of words, is more a well honed political fiction that serves as a kind of domestic nationalism than anything.

  9. dave says:

    But they do have majority power and so have the bully pulpit to demonstrate their predominance in that arena.

  10. JamesHalifax says:

    I’m not surprised by what Trudeau or McGinty said……they’re views on Alberta are well known.

    As for politicians saying dumb things, or things they regret……they’re certainly aren’t the first, and they won’t be the last.

    This will ding Trudeau in the short run, but it will have very little effect on the Provinces he actually plays too….ontario, Quebec, and those in the Maritimes. Remember…screw the West, they’ll take the rest.

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