Spring sniping at the Park
Tory leadership hopeful Hillier and former Grit attack dog Smitherman trade barbs
Tory leadership hopeful Hillier and former Grit attack dog Smitherman trade barbs
For a few brief, cranky moments yesterday morning, I thought I was stuck in a time warp and Mike Harris was still premier.
It was a raucous question period. With the Tories in the middle of a leadership campaign, the party is rotating the candidates as lead questioners. Yesterday it was the turn of rural maverick Randy Hillier from Lanark-Fronenac/Lennox & Addington.
He hammered away about the economy and how the Liberals had dragged the province down to the point where, in his words, Premier Dalton McGuinty had gone to Ottawa to pick up its first "welfare cheque" last week.
"It's embarrassing that Canada's economic engine is now on the dole," Hillier said. Then he launched an attack about what he calls the new Blended Sales Tax -- or BST, for short.
McGuinty wasn't in the Legislature, so the question was fielded by deputy premier George Smitherman -- no slouch himself in the inflammatory rhetoric department.
He made snide reference to Hillier's attendance record, asking Tories who agreed with him to say, "We support these outrageous statements coming from the occasional visitor from the back bench."
He might just as well have waved a red rag at a bull. Hillier made this startling observation: "The deputy premier is one silver-tongued bugger, I must admit."
Speaker Steve Peters asked him to withdraw the comment, which Hillier did, replacing it with "silver-tongued devil." Better the devil you know, I guess, than the bugger you don't. He was asked to withdraw that comment, too.
Outside the chamber, Hillier offered an explanation.
He was in Clayton last weekend talking to two elderly women in a retirement home.
"They said those Liberals are nothing but silver-tongued buggers," Hillier said.
If it was good enough for the ladies of Clayton, it was good enough for him. Hillier was "absolutely not" making any reference to the openly gay infrastructure minister's sexuality, he said.
Meanwhile, infuriated by the government's plan to cut short debate of the budget bill -- and therefore discussion of the so-called "harmonization" (read tax grab) of the GST and PST, the NDP started a desk-thumping campaign.
They want longer hearings on the budget. The Tories took up the refrain and it got so heated that Peters had to call for two timeouts to calm everyone down.
It's a tad hypocritical for the Liberals to get all sanctimonious about this. Brat pack politics is a time-honoured tradition around here.
In 1995, Liberal MPP Alvin Curling sparked a sit-in turned pyjama party, complete with a pee jar, when he refused to vote on an unpopular omnibus bill. A coalition of Liberal and NDP MPPs managed to bring the proceedings to a halt and stalled the bill for a month.
Sure it's goonish. But no one understands pit bull politics like Smitherman. He was part of the Liberal rat pack that helped elect McGuinty.
A GOOD THING
With a majority government, sometimes a hefty dose of civil disobedience is a good thing, so long as it doesn't go over the top and become mob rule.
Yesterday's stunt was nowhere near the levels the Liberals reached during the Harris era.
The NDP made some good points about the budget. Harmonization is a massive tax grab and we need to hear from groups and individuals across the province about how this will affect them.
So, that leaves just one more question: Does anyone know where Alvin Curling left his pee jar?
It was a raucous question period. With the Tories in the middle of a leadership campaign, the party is rotating the candidates as lead questioners. Yesterday it was the turn of rural maverick Randy Hillier from Lanark-Fronenac/Lennox & Addington.
He hammered away about the economy and how the Liberals had dragged the province down to the point where, in his words, Premier Dalton McGuinty had gone to Ottawa to pick up its first "welfare cheque" last week.
"It's embarrassing that Canada's economic engine is now on the dole," Hillier said. Then he launched an attack about what he calls the new Blended Sales Tax -- or BST, for short.
McGuinty wasn't in the Legislature, so the question was fielded by deputy premier George Smitherman -- no slouch himself in the inflammatory rhetoric department.
He made snide reference to Hillier's attendance record, asking Tories who agreed with him to say, "We support these outrageous statements coming from the occasional visitor from the back bench."
He might just as well have waved a red rag at a bull. Hillier made this startling observation: "The deputy premier is one silver-tongued bugger, I must admit."
Speaker Steve Peters asked him to withdraw the comment, which Hillier did, replacing it with "silver-tongued devil." Better the devil you know, I guess, than the bugger you don't. He was asked to withdraw that comment, too.
Outside the chamber, Hillier offered an explanation.
He was in Clayton last weekend talking to two elderly women in a retirement home.
"They said those Liberals are nothing but silver-tongued buggers," Hillier said.
If it was good enough for the ladies of Clayton, it was good enough for him. Hillier was "absolutely not" making any reference to the openly gay infrastructure minister's sexuality, he said.
Meanwhile, infuriated by the government's plan to cut short debate of the budget bill -- and therefore discussion of the so-called "harmonization" (read tax grab) of the GST and PST, the NDP started a desk-thumping campaign.
They want longer hearings on the budget. The Tories took up the refrain and it got so heated that Peters had to call for two timeouts to calm everyone down.
It's a tad hypocritical for the Liberals to get all sanctimonious about this. Brat pack politics is a time-honoured tradition around here.
In 1995, Liberal MPP Alvin Curling sparked a sit-in turned pyjama party, complete with a pee jar, when he refused to vote on an unpopular omnibus bill. A coalition of Liberal and NDP MPPs managed to bring the proceedings to a halt and stalled the bill for a month.
Sure it's goonish. But no one understands pit bull politics like Smitherman. He was part of the Liberal rat pack that helped elect McGuinty.
A GOOD THING
With a majority government, sometimes a hefty dose of civil disobedience is a good thing, so long as it doesn't go over the top and become mob rule.
Yesterday's stunt was nowhere near the levels the Liberals reached during the Harris era.
The NDP made some good points about the budget. Harmonization is a massive tax grab and we need to hear from groups and individuals across the province about how this will affect them.
So, that leaves just one more question: Does anyone know where Alvin Curling left his pee jar?
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