One Bad Apple Spoils the Bunch
Is it just me or are the semi-regular apologies being forced out of the Federal Conservative caucus wearing a little thin?
When will the people of Canada wake up and realize that the rot now being exposed among members of Parliament isn’t a problem with individuals alone. It also isn’t something that can be fixed with a forced and largely insincere apology. It’s a serious and dangerous attitude problem that is not only being condoned inside the Conservative Party of Canada but encouraged.
Today Natural Resources Minister, Lisa Raitt, delivered a teary eyed apology to the media after refusing to do so for days on end in the House of Commons. She finally apologized but only after mounting attacks from the opposition and most recently from numerous cancer patients who are rightly disgusted with her attitude and with the Prime Minister's acceptance of it.
With the support she’s been shown by the Prime Minister I’m surprised Minister Raitt apologized at all. In fact with the resounding praise heaped on her by her leader in the past two days I almost expected her to begin gunning down the elderly and infirm in the streets and hungrily lap their warm blood from the asphalt.
Seriously, it should be pretty obvious to anyone that this situation is just one more example of the rot that exists inside the Conservative Party of Canada. It's a sickness of the mind that is festering and growing with each passing day in power. The Raitt case is just the latest in a string of similarly disgusting pronouncements by Conservative Members of Parliament in recent years and I'll be very surprised if it's the last.
How many of us remember Saskatchewan Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski who turned up on a long lost video tape last year referring to homosexuals as “faggots with dirt under their fingernails who transmit diseases”.
Does anyone remember how Mr. Lukiwiski was dealt with inside the Conservative caucus? Probably not, because no action was ever taken to chastise the MP or to send a message to other members that this behaviour is unacceptable.
Once again, after a staged public apology all was forgiven and Mr. Lukiwski went back to work.
What about Conservative MP Gerry Ritz, the former Minister of Health, who laughingly joked during the listeria outbreak which caused a number of deaths across the Country, that eating tainted sandwich meats was, “like death by a thousand cuts, or should I say cold cuts”.
Ritz went on to express his hope that a newly announced death in PEI was one of his adversaries on the opposite side of the House. He was supported and backed to the hilt by Stephen Harper.
On a more recent note, in fact just this week, pit bull Conservative Transport Minister, John Baird, muttered publicly that the city of Toronto itself should “just F@#K OFF”. Once again, a quick apology seems to have satisfied the Prime Minister. No sanctions will be imposed, no resignation sought and, as a result, no message will be sent to other members of the Conservative caucus.
Is it any wonder that with the Prime Minister setting such a good example the rank and file are quite comfortable acting like self satisfied A-holes?
Consider that it was the Prime Minister himself who after bailing out GM, to the tune of more than $7 billion dollars in taxpayer money, said that anyone who lost their job in the forest industry should consider moving to Fort McMurray where there are plenty of jobs if they really want to work.
I’m not saying there aren’t serious attitude problems throughout Ottawa, regardless of which party an MP is a part of, in fact I'm sure of it, but when people work every day in an environment that condons and supports such behavior it does something to the mind. A sort of mob mentality develops and the worst behavior possible is bound to increase and spread.
I don't want an angry mob running loose in the streets of my town and I certainly don't want one running the Country.
The situation Minister Raitt finds herself in now rests as much on Mr. Harper’s shoulders as it does on her own.
Not to excuse her actions, but the comments made by the Minister, which include her musing about a potential bump to her political career and about taking all the credit for resolving a serious medical crisis affecting thousands of people across the Country, are a direct result of her environment and the attitude within it. She probably thought what she was saying was just fine based on her experiences inside the Conservative caucus.
On the tape Minister Raitt came across as quite comfortable with the shortage of medical isotopes and their effect on cancer and other diagnostic imaging tests. She seemed almost happy when referring to the problem as “sexy” because it dealt with “cancer” and “radioactive leaks”. This is not the attitude most of us expect from a Member of Parliament, but then again, it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch and when the worst rot of all exists in the biggest apple in the pile what hope is there for the entire crop?
3 comments:
The Canadian West got their man, Mr. Harper in power, and he set out immediately to do what they wanted him to do and he has pretty well accomplished it. He wasted no time.
To ensure the West remained the dominant location for Oil Producion he propelled the Dirty Tar Sands Projects into being and with Tens of Billions already spent, he might have secured the future of those projects.
I think he has assured the longevity of that industry for the West and its recognition of being the Oil Capital of Canada.
It was all a plan since the discovery of the large oil fields off Newfoundland and Labrador in the 1970s, when for weeks on end our province was declared as being the new Oil frontier of North America and our hopes and beliefs were heightened that we had made it to the cusp of becoming a "have" status economy. Then our hopes were dashed by a Western Oil man named Doig who told the world that Newfoundland and Labrador's Oil economy would amount to Nothing. Obviously he had the right connections with the Ottawa government and the Oil Industry to see that Newfoundland and Labrador's Oil industry would be put on hold for 20 years.
Recently news came that Suncor would be merging with Petro Canada, the new Corporation would carry the Suncor Name and the Corporation would be administered solely from Calgary.
When I hear financial analysts talking about the merger, they say that Petro Canada has the better assets, especially with its Conventional Oil acreage. Doesn't most of that Conventional Oil belong to Newfoundland and Labrador's Oil Fields?
I see the move to a new merged Suncor Corporation, as putting an end to the province of Newfoundland and Labrador's desire to gain control over the 8.9% equity which Ottawa holds and maybe all of our offshore oil fields will be administerd from Calgary.
I would like others to comment on that aspect, am I thinking straight or not?
I think the West has gained as much as it expected from the present Prime Minister.
As far as I am concerned, the present Prime Minister has done his job for the West, no matter, whether or not he lasts another month, and no doubt the West feels more economically secure because of his tenure.
The province of Newfoundland and Labrador will never get ahead with just 2.3% of the say in the Ottawa Parliament, since no one else wants our province to prosper. Our province's resources are too important to the well being of the others provinces' survival, our past politicians set that pattern in motion, and like trying to ween a baby off its milk bottle, those resources won't come back to us without a fight.
Your dog would win any seat in Alberta as a conservative!
Forced apologies true, but still better than the snotty "what are you kidding?" out of Danny the Arrogant.
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