Carolyn Parrish gets the Boot
Carolyn Parrish was not kicked out of caucus because of one of her outrageous statements this time. It wasn't cause she said she "hates" "those damn Americans" or even because she conjured up the image of Bush as "war-like", it's because she's going onto the media and I think Paul Martin is pissing his pants, intimidated. He wants to be god of control because he hasn't had it since election day. He'll stand up to her and even dismantle what the democratic arena should look like: a safe place to debate, if it means threatening the security and cohesion of parliament.
His job is already a hard job. Some wonder how a minority Liberal government is going to work anyways. They have the right to wonder. This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a wonderfully farcical show with good old Rick Mercer from Newfoundland and thank goodness for it. I wonder what the reasons are for Parrish not to be able to play a character, even if it so closely resembles the critical character she's played in parliament. It's bad PR I guess. It's controversy. Canadian politics aren't used to it. It just shows bad sportsmanship not to play the game with her. Paul's sounding grouchy. We should be a cheerier place.
Unfortunately, I understand why perhaps it's not such a good decision for Parrish to be a politician AND a movie star since the implications of her message are not explicit. Paul Martin lost his patience after she went on the show and stomped on the Bush Doll. That would make any Prime Minister who's main objective right now seems to be patching up US-Canada relations. I admire Parish when many cannot stand her because she lived with a level of freedom to express her perhaps eccentric, perhaps honest point-of-view. She did keep getting elected (3 times into her riding) and so I don't know that the government should have to impose it's regulations on how a message is delivered. "The medium is the message" said Marshal McLuhan, and so I think if you limit how someone can say what they want to say by kicking them out of politics, you're censoring WHAT they say, and I don't agree with that. Martin's idea that her actions are an expression of her being anti-caucus or whatever are seemingly a contradiction of the circumstances of her being a part of it. Even though many agree with her on her stand, they are suckers for politeness and having a low profile so they're too scaredy-pants to condone her.
I haven't even seen the This Hour has 22 Minutes episode, but I will definitely get on it.
view Jeff's blog
His job is already a hard job. Some wonder how a minority Liberal government is going to work anyways. They have the right to wonder. This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a wonderfully farcical show with good old Rick Mercer from Newfoundland and thank goodness for it. I wonder what the reasons are for Parrish not to be able to play a character, even if it so closely resembles the critical character she's played in parliament. It's bad PR I guess. It's controversy. Canadian politics aren't used to it. It just shows bad sportsmanship not to play the game with her. Paul's sounding grouchy. We should be a cheerier place.
Unfortunately, I understand why perhaps it's not such a good decision for Parrish to be a politician AND a movie star since the implications of her message are not explicit. Paul Martin lost his patience after she went on the show and stomped on the Bush Doll. That would make any Prime Minister who's main objective right now seems to be patching up US-Canada relations. I admire Parish when many cannot stand her because she lived with a level of freedom to express her perhaps eccentric, perhaps honest point-of-view. She did keep getting elected (3 times into her riding) and so I don't know that the government should have to impose it's regulations on how a message is delivered. "The medium is the message" said Marshal McLuhan, and so I think if you limit how someone can say what they want to say by kicking them out of politics, you're censoring WHAT they say, and I don't agree with that. Martin's idea that her actions are an expression of her being anti-caucus or whatever are seemingly a contradiction of the circumstances of her being a part of it. Even though many agree with her on her stand, they are suckers for politeness and having a low profile so they're too scaredy-pants to condone her.
I haven't even seen the This Hour has 22 Minutes episode, but I will definitely get on it.
view Jeff's blog
posted by sirbarrett at 9:42 p.m.
3 Comments:
I guess it is just a matter of disliking but not showing hate. It can be a powerful tool - a known person showing "hate" it is like say it's OK to hate, be it Americans or any other nation.
Disliking something or someone can be expressed without showing so much disgust and harsh action. A leader doing such prmpts followers to follow - hence chaos and brutality - and we don't want that. I have lots of Canadian friends that I would be scared to lose just over politics.
Just because one apple is bad doesn't mean the rest are too. :)
"I wonder what the reasons are for Parrish not to be able to play a character, even if it so closely resembles the critical character she's played in parliament. It's bad PR I guess."
Of course it's bad PR, and I'm confused as to what uncertainty you have over why she cannot be allowed to proceed as she has been.
The fact is that US-Canada relations are damaged and, while most of us would just like to say "Fuck the Americans" and rid ourselves of them, it cannot be denied that there are many economic reasons to remain strong partners with our Southern neighbours.
That being said, it is unlikely that anything a mediocre politician like Carolyn Parrish could say would affect relations with Americans in any significant way. However, it certainly doesn't help.
Ignoring all of her ignorant commentary for a second, let's consider a business scenario. If you disobey your supervisor, you're going to hear about it. Continue to disobey your supervisor, and you'll receive a warning. Keep on going, and you get fired. You can blame it on Paul Martin and say that he was just trying to intimidated and "pissing his pants", but I think that's total bullshit. The reality is, if you mouth off and disobey your boss, you're going to get fired. In business. In politics. Anywhere.
She was deliberately impetulent, and she got what she deserved. Make no mistake about that.
Ha. I just did a google search for "impetulent", and this post comes up third in the listings.
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