Video of a member of Parliament stomping on
a George W. Bush action figure on a popular
satirical news program caused a stir.
Posted on 11/22/2004 4:29:03 PM PST by OESY
For the first time, a government official may have lost her position because of comedy. Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin removed Carolyn Parrish, a member of Parliament from suburban Toronto, after he saw video of her stomping on a George W. Bush action figure in a segment of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's popular satirical news program, "This Hour Has 22 Minutes."
The episode also sparked some trouble within the government-owned CBC, because the news service broadcast the sketch as a news story before it was even aired on "22 Minutes." According to Ruth-Ellen Soles, a spokeswoman for the CBC, journalists had seen publicity clips of Ms. Parrish stomping the doll and asked the show's independent producer, Alliance-Atlantis, for permission to use them on that evening's network newscast.
Michael P. Donovan, the producer of "22 Minutes," said that he felt he had little choice but to give the network permission to show the clip.
"I actually feel a little guilty about this," said Mr. Donovan, who won an Academy Award for co-producing Michael Moore's film, "Bowling for Columbine." "If this had all gone by proper process and appeared on our show in a sketch format, it would have actually seemed quite tame."
From the news department's perspective, the timing was opportune. On Tuesday, the White House announced that President Bush would make his first visit to Canada later this month, sparking speculation about Ms. Parrish's behavior during the official visit. Ms. Parrish, who is a member of the ruling Liberal Party and represents a heavily Muslim district in the Ontario city of Mississauga, has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration. At one point, she called supporters of its missile defense plan a "coalition of the idiots."
The full sketch, including the five-second stomping, was finally broadcast on Friday night, a day after Ms. Parrish was exiled from her political party. Before that, the show had received about 1,000 e-mail messages, mostly critical.
"There's been an outpouring here I haven't seen for years, although I'm not sure it's good for the show," Mr. Donovan said. "What's caused a lot of this is that there's a tremendous, deep-rooted anxiety now about Canada-U.S. relations. Canadians have lost their famous sense of humor."
He added that he would not be sending more advance clips to the CBC any time soon.
Video of a member of Parliament stomping on
a George W. Bush action figure on a popular
satirical news program caused a stir.
Interesting to hear an elected member of a legislative body called a "public official". Americans usually don't think of legislators that way, and leftwing Americans certainly don't believe members of the federal judiciary are "public officials" although they are.
This isn't why she lost her place in the Caucus..She said she would not care a bit if Martin lost and she felt no loyalty to her party..She has said terrible things about Bush and Americans before with no consequences.
"Ms. Parrish, who is a member of the ruling Liberal Party and represents a heavily Muslim district in the Ontario city of Mississauga,..."
Hmm, heavily Muslim district. Never heard that before.
If she viewed this as "funny," then she should not be in the government. She should be a comedian.
No real problem, everybody is entitled to their opinion, but this woman should be wearing a burka, full time. It'd be interesting to know the ethnic/cultural/economic composition of her riding.
We have similar individuals in the US.
"For the first time, a government official may have lost her position because of comedy."
Maybe they mean in Canada. But Earl Butz comes to mind.
LOL! I think he was into "loose shoes" - not stompin shoes.
I have despised her since day 1. She, along with the other liberal cretins give Canada a bad name.
Carolyn Parrish=Mad Cow victim?
Her actions are simply childish. This is how we engage ourselves in kindergarten, not in public life. Perhaps she is eyeing a career in entertainment? She seems to love the publicity.
A career in entertainment? Only if she joins a freak show! What she did was not even close to being funny. These peoples egos are so big they think they can get away with anything. She needed to be taken down a few notches. Are you laughing now, Carolyn? Mad cow indeed!!!
Carolyn Parrish is saying aloud what a very large percentage of Eastern Canada actually believes. Her error was that she thought actions have no consequences, because up here they generally do not. This time they did.
I think whoever referred to Ms Parrish's Parrish as heavily Muslim must have been thinking of Scarborough. Ron Fellows lives in Mississauga and I don't think it's that kind of area.
Bush is pretty straight forward. Look at how often Arafat was to the US while Bush was in charge. I think we are all hoping that Canada will come around. Bush is opening the door after noting past reluctance to accept reality.
It seems to me that when Mulroney (sp?) was PM, political relations were fairly good. It seems that when the Canadian PM is from Quebec that there are problems. Why can't y'all get a PM from Alberta for a change? ;-)
Over the years I think I'm approaching a total of a years worth of time happily spent in Canada during days and weeks at a time (winters in AB & BC, mostly Augusts in Ontario. :-) ) I haven't been to Canada in ~2 years and am missing it (geography and people).
What a shame - i lived there 8-10 years ago. It was a very nice middle class surburban area (with a couple of slightly rougher subsections). I always wondered wha the bug up her ass was about - now we have an explaination (pandering to a community).
Why are all the Canadian PMs from Quebec of late?
It's too bad the actions and attitudes of our liberal politicians are taken as those of the entire populace.
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