Today's oddball quote of the day comes from none other than Mr. Ignatieff who while talking about the latest Helena Guergis controversy said that Canadians don't get to say we're sorry. He then proceeded to accuse her of lying about having no knowledge of her staffers writing Dear Abby letters; despite there as of yet being no evidence that she did have knowledge. There may be reasonable grounds to suspect that she knew about or possibly ordered the letters to the editor (which is not a criminal offense), but inferring guilt before evidence of it exists is not very Canadian.
I think that Helena should step down as cabinet minister (which I have said for weeks), but the impromptu presser that Iggy brutally over-acted was just absurd. He was trying to do his exaggerated outrage while also smiling; or what I have come to know as his "I'm so mad it's funny" face. Then he tried to imply that Canadians are outraged at the Minister because Canadians don't get to say "I'm sorry". That's news to me. I would agree that the more you have to say you're sorry, that does indicate a greater propensity to make mistakes. There's a reason that there is never any controversy swirling around Tony Clement, because he is a highly competent minister.
Even if she ordered the staffers to write the letters, I'm sure no Liberal staffer has ever written a letter to an editor or called a talk radio show pretending to be a random concerned citizen, not disclosing their conflict of interest. I'm sure that never happens, ever, ever. I'm sure no Liberal staffer has ever been sent to a line for swine flu vaccine and told to begin trying to incite public hysteria over a possible vaccine shortage (despite Canada having one of the largest per capita stockpiles in the world). That kind of thing never happens.
"Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments when he was merely stupid."
-The Far Side
I thought saying I'm sorry is what made us different from Americans ;)
ReplyDeleteWell, at the risk of further pissing off,"pissed off",several things bother me about this situation.
ReplyDeleteFirst,the Conservatives,ran on a platform of "we aren't the Liberals, honest government,integrity",etc.
Okay, fine, but now cracks are starting to show in the facade, and I have to explain to young people that "all politicians are NOT alike",though my argument is considerably weakened.
As "pissed off" excoriated me earlier on another blog,"they all do it". Yes,they do,and we wonder why young people are so cynical about politics and politicians that many of them don't bother to vote.
Harper has to boot Guergis to the backbenches if,for no other reason than to send a mesasage to the rest of the MP's, "smarten up".
Another thing, if you decide that you ARE going to go down the path of deception, and accept Machiavelli as your saviour, for F***'s sake do it right!
Get one of the Party faithful who ISN'T a Constituency Assistant to write the letters to the media! Guergis' two CA's must be as sharp as a sack of wet mice to have written using their maiden names, believeing the opposition wouldn't pick up on it. Al Capone woulda had 'em "rubbed out" for such a screw up.
Whatever a person,corporation,political Party, decides to do, for god's sake do it right,do it professionally. Take a lesson from the opposition and organize yourself so that this kind of embarrassment never happens again. Fire a few people to get the message across loud and clear, so that even MP's can understand it.
Guergis is a pretty face,the former Miss Outback,Ontario, but reading her CV, she seems to have no other qualifications for the job of MP, and her only political experience was as a CA in the office of an Ontario MPP.
If these two incidents are indicative of the integrity and/or intellect of Guergis and her staff, the Conservatives may be better off without all of them.
As to "inferring guilt" not being the Canadian way, hell, everybody on the planet loves to speculate on the guilt or innocence of the celebrity du jour, CNN makes a living at it, and nearly always imply guilt.
DMorris
So we have hissy fit, husband who won't entering any popularity contests, and some staffers who like their boss.
ReplyDeleteI don't see any grounds for her to resign and give the nutters more talking points.
Let them and the media consume themselves in how evil, stupid, undemocratic, underhanded etc Helena is for her inability to stop her husband or keep her staff on a short leash.
Hissyfit aside at airport what do we have as a "serious" problem?
When he candidates go door to door, what will they have?
Let them spin their wheels, chase the small non-issues that political junkies love.
90% of us are not tuned in to this BS.
40% are not watching Shoe-gate and they spent months pushing that story.
At some point, these people have to learn the perils of denouncing your opponents with a smile on your face.
ReplyDeleteIt sends the message: "I enjoy the misfortune of my adversaries." Poor form PR wise.
DMorris - I'll take her job! I am less qualified than her, but I don't have any secrets - everything stupid that I've done I've spoken about publicly, and now if I ever did have a job where someone could cry scandal, it wouldn't really be a scandal anymore. People who hide shit are going to find out that it still gets stinky!
ReplyDeleteI liked Anonymous' comment!
Ice - The Far Side always puts into words what others are thinking but don't quite know how to say - awesome line!
Ignatieff, is a pompous, hypocritical a$$. Has anyone EVER justified their past comments as 'being taken out of context' more than him?
ReplyDeleteNot that I can remember.
Having said that, the whole airport thing was blown into a ridiculous witch hunt and coffee klatch gossip fest however I do find the letters pretty juvenile. I KNOW stuff like this and of a similar nature occurs from all sides ALL of the time but I would rather not defend this aspect. The staffer needs to go but I do not support the PM demoting Helena.
That would give the likes of hypocrite Ignatieff, more ammunition to be a bigger a$$.
None of this garbage would stop by firing her. They would just move on to another attempted public hanging because that has become their only party policy and the one they have perfected, down to a science.
Has a Liberal staffer ever "written a letter to an editor or called a talk radio show pretending to be a random concerned citizen, not disclosing their conflict of interest"? I can't think of an example, but I'm betting it's happened. Does this mean that the actions of Ms Craven and Ms Knight excusable? Of course not.
ReplyDeleteHas a Liberal staffer "ever been sent to a line for swine flu vaccine and told to begin trying to incite public hysteria over a possible vaccine shortage (despite Canada having one of the largest per capita stockpiles in the world)"? That's curiously specific. I very much doubt it, but I would hope that anyone with evidence would do the right thing and come forward.
One final question: Did Ms Craven and Ms Knight have smiles on their faces when denouncing their opponents?
When are the media going to show the video of Helena having her hissy fit? They were quick to show the old clip of Lukiwsky running down gays. There has to be a video from Charlottetown airport and we need to know who the airport staff member is who contacted Easter.If the media can out the letter writers then why not the airport snitch? I had no sympathy to begin with for Helena but the pile from the MSM and Liberals is excessive.
ReplyDeleteThe tirade of Wayne (doorknob) Easter man from the Hellhole province, was frothing at the mouth today on QP. That is the liberal way and how we move ahead with sound political decisions.
ReplyDeleteInstead of solid policies and platforms they continue to skulk around in the night seeking dirty laundry. Well, they are experts at dirty laundry and so they should be able to single out inividuals rather than form sound policies that would better the everyday Canadian.
Ignatieff - Not a leader!
Brian I am not excusing the behavior, but it is not even close to illegal. I am pointing out the hypocrisy of an opposition going bananas on a minor thing that I'm sure they themselves have done many times in the past. I don't know if the staffers had smiles on their faces and I don't care. My opinion is that the staffers should be fired and the Minister should resign, so how you think I am excusing the behavior does not make practical sense.
ReplyDeleteDo I think the Liberal party is exaggerating their outrage? Absolutely.
My recolection may be misguided here but...Was there not a big skit as part of the closing ceramonies at the olympics when how canadians loved to say they were sorry. Oh oh found it...
ReplyDelete"We just like to say sorry," O'Hara said."It's our national pastime."
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/03/01/2010-03-01_olympic_closing_ceremony_catherine_ohara_william_shatner_and_michael_j_fox_act_p.html
hope the link works but it is easy to find.
Perhaps Iggy is confusing Canada with some other country...like maybe his home country America!
Another money quote from a great american who does not understand Canada.
You can't make this stuff up
BB,
ReplyDeleteis dredging up Mark Sakamato for the CBC interview. The bigger problem is the credibility of the CBC.
http://canadiansense.blogspot.com/2009/11/liberal-party-of-canada-adding-to.html
or
http://canadiansense.blogspot.com/2009/11/is-liberal-party-suffering-from-serious.html
Now that Iggy has weighed in, the Liberals are clearly over-playing their hand. It doesn't make sense for a PM-wanna-be to dirty his hands on such a relatively minor issue, especially with such an outrageous charge that she is lying. Easter and Neville didn't need any help in the piling on.
ReplyDeleteIt would be entertaining to see Guergis take a piece out of Iggy. Kind of like how Rona Ambrose put Ken Dryden in his place, with the comment about how "women don't need old white guys to tell them how to raise their children".
'First,the Conservatives,ran on a platform of "we aren't the Liberals, honest government,integrity",etc.' said Lynn aka DMorris
ReplyDelete-Chretien has secret slush funds that Gomery/AG were not able to investigate
-12 Liberals candidates received stolen taxpayer money, in $100 bills stuffed into envelopes, Martin/Dion/Iffy have never
told us who the Liberal candidates were, are they MPs? and none of them have ever been brought before the law
-Liberals set up a money laundering network, using ad agencies to funnel funds back into the LPC
-because none of this could be exposed because the law on time limits, the Liberals got away with theft, money laundering and likely more.
And you dare to compare fan mail for Helena to what scumbag Liberals did in office!!
Iggy is pretty excited to do the Stombo Show tonight. I'm expecting at least two boneheaded sound clips.
ReplyDeleteThis latest incident ( we haven't forgotten wafergate, H1N1, Door Knobs) that has brought out Liberals with all pop guns blazing has given Canadians a great opportunity to contrast the leadership of Stephen Harper (the professional) and that of Michael Ignatieff (amateur hour)
ReplyDeleteOne should be reminded at this time of the incident where the Liberals were found guilty of planting senior Ignatieff strategist and former CBC lawyer Mark Sakamoto in a H1N1 vaccine line-up on TV to complain about the Conservatives handling of the roll out of the vaccine.
Remember.
Canadians will recall in the Sakamoto incident Harper and Conservatives did not ask for resignations, perform histrionics in the house, make absurd allegations, call anyone a liar, and try to blow the incident up into a big scandal - in fact the opposite was true and as you can see they deliberately downplayed it.
What is more can't you all be impressed by the way Harper handled this controversy ( what a contrast to a would be PM Iffy) - he said the party will not be commenting - how different from Ignatieff and Wayne (dooknob Easter) who try to blow this minor incident into a scandal with help from a subservient media .
At the time of the Sakamoto incident Taber wrote in her column
"1. The politics of H1N1. Did the Ignatieff Liberals really plant one of their own to complain on national television about the shortage of vaccine? Indeed, the accusations are flying today with the Harper PMO sending out an alert to all of its MPs, Senators and staffers urging them not to respond or comment about a news story on CBC's The National last night “in which an employee of Michael Ignatieff’s office appears in a ‘street interview’ as an ordinary citizen concerned about the supply of H1N1 vaccine.”
The notice, sent via email, goes on to “urge MPs not to respond to the transparent attempt to pass off an Ignatieff staffer as a non-partisan Canadian. We will not be commenting on the incident. It is very sad and unfortunate that the Ignatieff Liberals are desperately attempting to politicize the H1N1 preparedness efforts of the federal and provincial governments.”
Contrast the leadership of Stephen Harper and that of Ignatieff on a very similar incident - you decide who is a winner and who deserves to lead this country.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/the-perils-of-politicizing-a-pandemic/article1349330/
Lynn,dmorriss, whatever, if you are going to go behind my back and bring up my name on a blog I haven't even commented on get your facts straight.
ReplyDelete"As "pissed off" excoriated me earlier on another blog,"they all do it". Yes,they do,and we wonder why young people are so cynical about politics and politicians that many of them don't bother to vote."
That wasn't me it was Ontario girl
http://unambig.com/another-incompetent-ministerial-aide-hurts-conservatives/#comments
It sort of destroys your credibility.
There appear to be some internal animosities on this issue. Calm down people...
ReplyDelete