Gerry Ritz in Context

Unforunate as it is, all parties have their asshole candidates

As the controversy surrounding the ridiculous comments made by federal Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz -- not-so-cleverly dubbed "Ritz Crackers" by the Edmonton Sun -- Canadians are reminded of a sobering fact.

Many politicians are assholes.

For his own part, Ritz's comments transcend assholishness. Gerry Ritz is not merely an asshole. Gerry Ritz is a fucking asshole. (And yet while living in Lloydminster, you voted for that guy twice. Funny, that. -Ed)

In a conference call with Department of Agriculture bureaucrats, scientists and his political staff, Ritz made some... colourful comments regarding the Listeria outbreak related to Maple Leaf Foods throughout August and September.

This is like a death by a thousand cuts. Or should I say cold cuts," Ritz remarked (cue drum beat).

After hearing Listerosis had claimed a victim in Prince Edward Island, Ritz said. "Please tell me it's Wayne Easter."

Easter has called for Ritz's resignation over the Conservative handling of the outbreak -- despite the fact that Michael McCain, the CEO of Maple Leaf Foods has already exhonerated the government, noting that Maple Leaf staff is to blame for the outbreak.

Of course, there are no political points to be scored in allowing Maple Leaf Foods to take responsibility for the matter.

Easter had previously claimed that the Tories were conspiring against him. Which is an odd accusation, considering that Liberal leader Stephane Dion is blatantly conspiring with Green party leader Elizabeth May to dislodge Conservative deputy leader Peter MacKay.

The "Ritz Crackers" affair is outrageous, but it brings to memory another outrageous episode in recent Canadian political history in which Jane Cornelius, the president of the St Catharines Liberal riding association distributed a joke about a hypothetical assassination of Prime Minister Stephen Harper -- by allied troops, no less.

Meanwhile Walt Lastewka, a Liberal candidate and former MP embroiled in the Cornelius affair by way of his dfense of Cornelius, showed considerable class recently by temporarily suspending his campaign in the wake of Tory opponent (and incumbent) Rick Dykstra's recent bereavement.

On another, distinctly un-classy, note much has been made about Harper's defense of Ritz, and for good reason. But then one also has to recall that Stephane Dion merely accepted Cornelius' apology in St Catharines and pursued no futher action.

In each case, apparently, a simple apology is supposed to make the whole matter go away. But it doesn't.

Canadians have the right to expect higher standards of those involved in politics. Just as Cornelius let down her former Liberals and the constituents of her riding, Gerry Ritz has let down his fellow Conservatives and, more importantly, the constituents of Battleford-Lloydminster.

If the individuals in question won't say so, their leaders should. In each case, the leaders in question will inevitably have to wear the indiscretions of their prematurely-excused colleagues.

There is no question that Gerry Ritz and Jane Cornelius are assholes.

Unfortunately, however, this is politics. There are plenty of assholes to go around.

Stephane Dion and the High Road

Doesn't usually include jokes about the assassination of a political opponent

Yesterday, as the story of a joke distributed by the president of the St Catharine's Liberal riding association about the assassination of Prime Minister Stephen Harper made its rounds, Liberal leader Stephane Dion, speaking in St Catharine's, had a unique opportunity to seize the political high road.

Instead, he did the precise opposite while insisting that he had done precisely that.

"It was in bad taste," Dion admitted, but instead of taking some time to reflect on the matter itself, instead tried to spin it into an attack on the Conservative party. "I’m very disappointed by the attitude of the Conservatives with their attack ads, low-blow politics, and we should not be one of them at all. We should keep the high road. It’s what Canadians deserve. It’s what they want and it’s what they will have with us."

Yet one wonders how precisely Dion defines the high road, when a joke alleging that Canadian troops -- or those of our allies -- has been offered up under the guise of legitimate political discourse and all the party leader has to say about it is "it was in bad taste."

Meanwhile, it's also impossible to overlook the fact that there's a difference between the attack ads directed at Dion by the Conservatives, which question his abilities as a leader, and highlight some of the lowlights of Dion's record (both of which are politically legitimate and fair, however much his various partisan hacks and lackeys would like to insist otherwise) and a joke about the assassination of the Prime Minister.

Dion also questioned why St Catharines Conservative MP Rick Dykstra didn't complain in April, when the joke was published. "Why is he waiting for weeks if it’s not crass politics?"

"Mr. Dykstra did that only to smear because I have a great function today and a big town hall meeting, which he doesn’t have," insisted Liberal candidate (and former MP) Walt Lastewka.

Jane Cornelius, who distributed the joke in the first place, even suggested that Dykstra had some sort of responsibility to oontact her directly before criticizing her publicly.

“Did I get a call from him? The answer is absolutely not,” Cornelius complained. “I would have expected more from the MP."

But Dykstra, who as a Conservative MP isn't exactly a subscriber of Peaking Liberally, hadn't even been made aware of the comments until this week.

Oddly enough, Dykstra's own comments were very much in the spirit of Dion's.

"This is obviously not at all in good humour," Dykstra announced. "If you refer to what people are saying about it now, there’s pretty overwhelming agreement that they are comments that should be withdrawn, apologized for and at least acknowledged that they were certainly incorrect and should not have happened."

"I certainly think good humour and good-spirited debate is something that has a place in our federal politics," he added. "This certainly doesn’t, and I don’t find it humorous."

Dion insisted that "Jane apologized and she did the right thing."

"In no way did I mean to offend anyone, and I apologize if I did," Cornelius had written in an earlier statement. "It was meant as a joke and to have a smile and a chuckle."

But apologizing for the offense is not the same as apologizing for the act. And when one makes such an eggregiously unacceptable remark in the course of a letter suggesting that politicians find the very "high road" that she and Dion allude to, it reeks of sheer, unadulterated hypocrisy.

It's well known that Stephane Dion "chewed out" Garth Turner over his remarks about Quebecois and Albertan separatists. Why would he not choose to chew out Cornelius for musing about the assassination of a political opponent?

For someone presuming to lecture Rick Dykstra about "crass politics", it's odd that Dion would excuse Jane Cornelius for engaging in politics that are beyond Crass and, quite frankly, make a lot of Canadians wonder what Jane Cornelius and Stephane Dion "smile" and "chuckle" about.

Old Joke, New Outrage

Jane Cornelius steps in it, tracks it into the house

Make no mistake about it: Jane Cornelius, the president of the St Catharine's Liberal riding association, is watching her political career go down in flames today, struck by the heatseaking missile that is her own hubris.

In a controversy quickly tearing its way through the blogosphere, Cornelius printed what has turned out to be an extremely ill-advised "joke" in Peaking Liberally, the St Catharines Liberal newsletter:

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper was visiting a primary school and he visited one of the classes.

They were in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings. The teacher asked the PM if he would like to lead the discussion on the word “tragedy”. So the illustrious leader asked the class for an example of a “tragedy”.

One little boy stood up and offered: “If my best friend, who lives on a farm, is playing in the field and a tractor runs over him and kills him, that would be a tragedy.

“No,” said Harper, “that would be an accident.”

A little girl raised her hand: “If a school bus carrying 50 children drove over a cliff, killing everyone inside, that would be a tragedy.”

“I’m afraid not,” explained Harper. “That’s what we would call great loss."

The room went silent. No other children volunteered. Harper searched the room. “Isn’t there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?”

Finally at the back of the room, Little Johnny raised his hand... In a quiet voice he said: “If the plane carrying you and Mrs. Harper was struck by a “friendly fire” missile and blown to smithereens that would be a tragedy.”

“Fantastic!” exclaimed Harper. “That’s right. And can you tell me why that would be tragedy?” “Well,” says the boy,

“It has to be a tragedy, because it certainly wouldn’t be a great loss ...and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either”."

Ironically, this was printed in an article accusing the Conservative government of poisoning Canada's political discourse, and suggesting that Liberals need to "wash their hands" of that.

If Cornelius is at all surprised by the outrage the printing of this joke has generated, she needs to have her head examined. (She may need it examined regardless.)

For a political party to print a joke about the assassination of a competing political leader is one thing. To suggest that Canadian troops, or the troops of one of our allies could be responsible for it, is entirely another. It's purely outrageous.

But some of the outrage may be overblown.

For example, Warren Kinsella has suggested the RCMP should be alerted.

While the spirit of the joke is outrageously disgusting, to take it quite this seriously is another matter. This is actually a very old joke, and has been told time and time again about any number of politicians.

All the "Little Johnny" jokes are. And let's not forget that Little Johnny is a bit of a little jerk.

Of course, never before has it been offered up under the guise of legitimate political discourse. And while numerous individuals have taken certain delight in poisoning Canada's political discourse, for the representative of one of our two major parties to do so quite like this is simply beyond the pale.

At least politics -- at least on any formal level -- isn't something that Jane Cornelius will have to worry about for much longer. If Stephane Dion doesn't act quickly to remove her from the presidency of the St Catherine's riding association (and maybe even expel her from the party) he needs to have his head examined, too.