Sorry. Really, I'm sorry. No, I mean it. Look, I said I was sorry...
If you’re considering a career in politics of the federal sort, you better be able to apologize.
Those folks in Ottawa may not be good at much, but they’ve cornered the market on saying sorry.
Robert Thibault, a Liberal from Nova Scotia, apologized twice in the past week, once for suggesting a 60-year-old potential opponent was too old to run for office, then again for calling Marjory LeBreton an idiot and suggesting she go back to making tea for Brian Mulroney. (Thibault didn’t actually apologize to LeBreton; didn’t even mention her. He apologized if we all misunderstood him and thought he was insulting women. It wasn’t his fault, it was ours.)
We’ve also had apologies this year from Tory MPs Tom Lukiwski and Pierre Poilievre, made offensive comments about homosexuals and aboriginal people. Stephen Harper apologized recently, on behalf of the whole country. The Prime Minister used a visit to Surrey, B.C. to reveal we are all sorry about the treatment of a ship named the Komagata Maru, which was loaded with would-be migrants, mostly Sikhs, but was turned away from Vancouver in 1914 by immigration officials.
The apology didn’t go over well. Some members of the Canadian Indian community said it should have been delivered in Parliament, like an earlier apology to Canada’s First Nations, and one before that to the Chinese community.
Jack Layton agreed with them, suggesting Harper should re-apologize, only this time in the House of Commons. Mr. Layton is a bit of a stickler over apologies. He wasn’t satisfied with Mr. Thibault’s apology either (the one he sort of made to Ms. LeBreton, not the one to the seniors), noting: “It certainly couldn’t be described as an enthusiastic apology and he was unwilling apparently to direct the apology to the individual he had insulted so in that sense it’s something that requires the intervention of his leader.”
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Jack Layton, king of transit
Speaking of Jack Layton, was anyone aware that the NDP leader has been touring the country giving out money for transit projects?
Layton doesn’t actually have any money, of course. He’s promising money he would have if he were to become Prime Minister. Since that’s not going to happen, he can promise just about any amount he feels like, so it’s good to know he’s showing some restraint. He hasn’t actually promised anyone a gazillion dollars yet (which he could get from Robert Mugabe in return for about $3.58 in real money).
But it is adding up. On Tuesday he promised $37.1 million for Regina transit; two days before that he promised $591 million in Montreal; a week ago he promised $840 million in Toronto, and in July he promised $206 million in Vancouver.
That’s more than $1.5 billion already, and summer isn’t over yet. Want a million bucks? Invite Jack Layton over and tell him you need a bus pass.
National Post
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