Wednesday, May 02, 2007

"Hocus pocus, boogah boogah economics"

1. Elizabeth May is in hot water for comparing someone or some action to Hitler or Chamberlain or something of the sort. Since I'm sure you all came to this blog for my expert analysis, I will offer this profound insight which you are unlikely to see anywhere else: it was stupid of her to say that.

Obviously, Jack Layton is in agreement with this assessment:

"Well, we certainly would have never made any such comparison," he said. "I think it's very unfortunate and certainly not something that we consider to be wise or appropriate."

I agree. Anyone who would compare something like the Kyoto accord to appeasement lacks common sense and good judgment.

Via Aaron Wheery comes this gem from Jack:

"Mr. Speaker, enough is enough. We have been hearing those kinds of comments from the Prime Minister for 16 years since he began promising to clean up the air for Canadians and instead we have worse pollution than ever. He makes Neville Chamberlain look like a stalwart in standing up to a crisis. Smog is sending people to emergency wards at unprecedented levels. The prairies are drying up. We have forest fires like we have never had before. All we get are promises of plans to be brought forward some day. Will he bring forward a plan, yes or no?"


2. Speaking of Macleans, their Instapundit feature gives a nice round-up of the daily news for anyone wanting to get caught up on the news at a site that doesn't sell headlines.


3. The Danny Williams Dave Bronconnier versus Paul Martin Stephen Harper Ed Stelmach feud is is all the rage in Alberta these days.


4. It's always fun to see what different Tory Cabinet Ministers think of the entire "nation" question. Jean-Pierre Blackburn appears to subscribe to the Diefenbaker deux nations philosophy.

Labels: , ,

13 Comments:

  • While I have to agree with you that this was a real misstep by May. That it allowed Layton the opportunity to display some of his always-waiting-just-under-the-surface hypocrisy almost made it worth it.

    And I actually used to think I liked Jack back when I lived in T Dot and he was an alderman.

    By Blogger Ian, at 10:38 p.m.  

  • I enjoyed Scott Feschuk's analysis.

    http://forums.macleans.ca/advansis/?mod=for&act=dis&eid=13

    It was surprisingly non-partisan.

    Apparently, Miriam Bedard and Elizabeth May are related, so who knows where this story is going.


    As to Dave and Ed, if you don't live in Calgary, it is really hard to side with Dave.

    By Blogger Down & Out in L A, at 10:40 p.m.  

  • CG:

    I'm surprised you didn't also mention from the same article Peter MacKay's usage of the Neville Chamberlain comparison - ironically to the NDP.

    By Blogger Oxford County Liberals, at 10:57 p.m.  

  • I think that people under stress say a lot of interesting things. To be factual, some people seem to be misrepresenting what May said.

    We are Taliban huggers to the harperites. The greens obviously think that the opposition are/will be mass murderers. There is so much fear and hate.

    This is a period of conflict; the west against the east, rich against the poor, left against the right. We do need to proceed carefully. Otherwise we will create permanent fractures that will not heal.

    We need to arrive at a consensus after all the arguing. It isn’t enough for a democratic decision. Any outcome will leave half the folks dissatisfied. America is an example to avoid.

    So, we have to respect the rule of law and fair play. We have to speak the truth. We must bow to the facts.

    By Blogger JimTan, at 11:38 p.m.  

  • This is beyond a misstep in my view. If it wasn't official before May's comments, it is now: we can no longer have a rational debate/discussion about climate change.

    Instead, the *debate* is a new form of McCarthyism. Thoughtful analysis is replaced by shrill *apocalyptic* hysteria. The end of the world is nigh...

    I suspect that twenty years from now, we're going to look back at this period in our history and wonder if we've really evolved since the days of the second red scare.

    By Blogger Sean Cummings, at 4:50 a.m.  

  • What I'm surprised no one is upset about more is the fact that she blatantly abused a pulpit of a church in order to put forward an unapologetically partisan speech. Whatever happened to seperation of church and state? Politics should stay off the pulpit.

    Her bashing other Christian sects is par for course if it was scripturally based, but from what I'm reading none of it was. Essentially it was just a rant based on her person opinion, not scriptures.

    By Blogger Eric, at 10:06 a.m.  

  • So many comments about May. Let’s make sure that we know what we are talking about.

    This was reported by Gloria Galloway in the Globe and Mail.

    For three days, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and members of his caucus have returned Liberal attacks by castigating Ms. May for saying their environmental plan was a "grievance worse than Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of the Nazis."

    “If you can't make a comment about the Second World War without immediately being charged with having said something about the Nazis and the Holocaust, then we really do impoverish the dialogue and our own historical set of references," Ms. May said.

    Reported by National Post on May 1st

    Ms. May's teary-eyed homily on global warming no doubt moved many in the audience. She told the United Church congregation that "Through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can meet this moral obligation."

    In referring to Evangelical Christians, Ms. May stated that some "are waiting for the end [of ] time in glee ? and they unfortunately include President [George W.] Bush." Ms. May also described Stephen Harper's plan to deal with global warming as "worse than Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of the Nazis."

    Here’s the opinion of Arthur Weinrab (Jew?) in the Canadian Free Press

    But May never compared the prime minister to Adolf Hitler. She compared Harper to Chamberlain and how he appeased the Nazis in order to obtain peace in our time.

    The criticism of what Elizabeth May said last weekend seems to suggest that it is now politically incorrect, not only to make Hitler-like comparisons to current leaders who act in a certain way or to liken anything bad to the Holocaust thereby diminishing its enormity, but to use any Nazi era comparisons.

    By Blogger JimTan, at 10:43 a.m.  

  • It's funny how none of her kooky comments came up when she was head of the Sierra Club. Either way, Elizabeth May is ... what's the term I'm looking for... oh yeah, "out there".

    By Blogger Sean Cummings, at 11:30 a.m.  

  • There are comments on several blogs to the effect that May was speaking to the point that people in Europe are making this kind of comment about Canada so we should work to get a genuine climate change plan. One of the commenters stated that they were at the Church where May spoke and affirmed this context and reference in her remarks. If this is so there is simply no basis for the attack on her and it is just another example of the unbounded malice of the Cons leader.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 1:20 p.m.  

  • personnally, i find calling canadian citizens "taliban lovers" for questioning the mission in afghanistan to be far more reprehensible than comparing the gov't inaction on the climate front to neville chamberlain.

    as for may being "out there"...she definately is "out there" with peter mckay, jack layton, the prime minister and most of his cabinet.

    "If it wasn't official before May's comments, it is now: we can no longer have a rational debate/discussion about climate change.

    Instead, the *debate* is a new form of McCarthyism"

    gee, reminds me of afghanistan...although, far less mccarthyesque than the "with us or against us" "taliban loving traitors" rhetoric.

    By Blogger canuckistanian, at 1:31 p.m.  

  • oh, i forgot to add to the list of people "out there": prince charles for saying the exact same thing as lizzy may.

    also, gotta love the: "harper, bush, and howard are the axis of evil of climate change" (not verbatim).

    By Blogger canuckistanian, at 1:33 p.m.  

  • This comment has been removed by the author.

    By Blogger Sean Cummings, at 1:54 p.m.  

  • By Blogger Sean Cummings, at 1:55 p.m.  

Post a Comment

<< Home