Posted on 05/20/2005 3:47:46 AM PDT by Clive
How do the Liberals do it, you ask? How do they keep rising from the grave like Dracula, last night barely surviving a 152-152 non-confidence motion after the Speaker of the House, Liberal MP Peter Milliken, broke the tie in their favour?
The answer is best summed up by the always unpredictable, but ever quotable Carolyn Parrish, who was tossed out of the Liberal party several months ago by Prime Minister Paul Martin for her juvenile antics slagging U.S. President George Bush.
Reacting on Wednesday to the news that Martin had just welcomed Tory uber-turncoat Belinda Stronach into cabinet in exchange for her crucial support in last night's confidence vote, Parrish snapped: "It disgusts me. Absolutely. I can't believe how low we as Liberals will go to hang on to this government."
And there, in a nutshell, you have it. That's how Liberals do it.
Ironically, Parrish, suffering from a painful ovarian cyst, nonetheless hauled herself into the Commons last night as she had earlier vowed to do to help prop up Martin's government.
Despite her fury over Stronach's appointment, she had consistently said that most of her constituents did not want an election and she would vote to uphold the government.
Or, as she unforgettably told The Canadian Press yesterday: "Come hell or high water, there's no friggin' way I'm going to let one ovary bring down the government."
Of course, Liberals being Liberals, Parrish, as their excommunicated wild child, was, at least for yesterday, being treated like the returning prodigal daughter.
Not only did Martin's office call to offer her a ride to Parliament Hill last night, but one of her former colleagues, Liberal MP Dr. Bernard Patry, visited her at home to diagnose her condition and, Parrish said, was ready to give her "a shot" of painkiller if she needed it to make it to the Commons.
And that, in part, is how the Liberals do it. Why they survive.
They do whatever it takes, even if, as the testimony at the Gomery inquiry has revealed, they have to act like the mob to do it.
(Indeed, compared to what all those corrupt Liberals did in Quebec with our money, Parrish's sins seem mere peccadillos.)
In any event, the Liberals survive not only because they are ruthless -- regardless of whether their leader is Jean Chretien or Paul Martin -- but because they are without shame.
Think of Martin last night, calling for a return to civility in Parliament immediately after the non-confidence vote.
This from the party that invented the rat pack -- a group of rabid Liberal attack dogs formed over a decade ago who made Stephen Harper and today's Conservatives look like choirboys.
Then there's Martin's talent for saying stuff so nutty that it would cause mere mortals to fall over laughing. Take his proud claim during question period yesterday that no, contrary to claims by the Opposition, the Liberals had not offered patronage postings to Tory MP Gurmant Grewal and his wife, also a Tory MP, in exchange for backing the Liberals or abstaining from voting against them last night.
Declared a smug-looking Martin, not only had the Liberals not made any such advances, but they had rejected advances that had been made to them.
Okay, let's examine this logically. On that basis, the conversation between Grewal and Martin's top aide would have gone something like this:
Grewal: "Will you guys give me a job, if I support you on the non-confidence motion?"
Aide: "No. That would be wrong."
Why then, was Grewal able to produce tapes of Martin's top aide going on and on to him about some hypothetical Conservative MPs (uh, who else was the aide talking to?) possibly not voting with their party on the non-confidence motion, thus leaving himself (or themselves) "negotiating room" after the vote was taken, even though "explicit (my italics) discussions about Senate, not Senate, I don't think are very helpful and I don't think, frankly, can be had in advance of an abstention tomorrow."
Now, according to Paul Martin that's refusing to offer someone a patronage job in return for their vote.
And that's how the Liberals do it. Hey, it ain't magic.
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How come we're never treated to stories about how Canada is a "deeply divided" 50/50 nation where rights of the minority opinion must be respected?
Your liberals sound like our liberals.
The only difference being our Liberals are in power now. Fortunately Harper's Conservatives will let as little legislation through as possible during this session...I hope.
Who cares! Just stay the hell up in Canada!
And note how after the elections that even the LIEberal Dem losers did not flock up to Canada as they PROMISED they would.
Does that tell you anything?
Does that tell you anything?
Yeah--talk is cheap.
"Parrish, suffering from a painful ovarian cyst..."
Canadian socialized medicine strikes again.
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