Some people are convinced that Justin Trudeau will pay a price for his less than sunny behaviour in the House last week. Tom Walkom isn't so sure. Canadians, he writes, like to have "chippy" prime ministers:
Trudeau broke all the rules Wednesday when he marched across the Commons floor, grabbed Conservative whip Gord Brown by the arm and hustled him to his seat, all in order to get a projected vote underway.In the melee, the prime minister also inadvertently elbowed Quebec New Democrat MP Ruth-Ellen Brousseau in the chest.New Democrats standing nearby said Trudeau used a vulgar synonym for fornication as he urged MPs to get out of his way.
But this kind of behaviour isn't new to prime ministers:
Voters often like it when a prime minister gets tough or rude. Jean Chrétien suffered no political penalty when, as prime minister, he grabbed a peaceful protester by the throat and forced him to the ground.Pierre Trudeau, in what became known as the fuddle-duddle incident, famously told opposition MPs to fornicate with themselves. Voters elected his Liberals to government three more times after that.
Was it polite behaviour? Certainly not. It showed that Trudeau can be impetuous and far from sunny. More importantly, his actions caused proceedings to ground to a halt. But Trudeau apologized more than once. Other than his apology for residential schools, when was the last time you heard Stephen Harper apologize?
Will he pay? We'll see.
Image: youtube.com
14 comments:
Ruth Ellen Brosseau was involved in a corrupt game to physically block the opposition whip from walking up the opposition side of the center aisle (as is the tradition) to obstruct a vote. Trudeau simply decided to intervene in the nonsense and free the Con MP.
Whether Brosseau was actually elbowed or is just faking it doesn't matter. She has absolutely zero credibility given the corruption she was involved in.
Mulcair may believe he was successful in roping the prime minister into this disgusting scheme of his. But what he actually did was rally the vast majority of Canadians to the prime minister's defense.
Whatever kind of nonsense the pundits are blabbing about, this act will give Trudeau one of the biggest boosts in popularity of his career.
YouTube: Justin Trudeau's supposed elbow assault nothing but a set up. NDP deception
https://youtu.be/Sn9Up-tjmoM
You're right Owen, he did apologize. The Cons. and NDP's response to this non-issue, shows how desperate they are to demean and villify Trudeau. They have, since he became PM, just waited to pounce. They are so lacking in self awareness, they don't even know that they should be embarassed over the spectacle their making of themselves.
Will the outraged, overblown, even hysterical hyperbole of the NDP and Conservative parties lead Canadians to believe the Prime Minister of Canada is a sexual predator prowling the halls of Parliament and the capitols of the world in search of women to brutalize with his elbow?
One can only hope. I need to laugh more.
I suspect you'll hear some rhetoric that sounds like that, Dana.
There was a time when both opposition parties claimed that his leadership would be short lived, Pam. Harper is gone. Soon Mulcair will be gone, too.
Thanks for the clip, Anon. Things look a little different in a slow motion replay.
Owen, I've already heard rhetoric like that. JT has been likened to Ghomeshi already - I expect some Bernardo comparisons soon.
If I were King for a day I'd ensure that everyone involved spend a week riding back and forth on the Bloor line at both rush hours.
I'm sure the allegations of assault would fly thick and fast and the TTC would be named in multiple civil actions.
Lost in all of this of course is Elizabeth May's attempt to remind the...ahem..."Honourable Members"...ahem...that they are adults. Booed down quite honourably of course.
Jackasses, all of them. We may or may not get the government we deserve but we certainly do get the representatives we deserve.
A herd doesn't have a brain, Dana. And, these days, the herd is doing just fine.
I can remember the weekend my father and I spent carefully removing the lettering from the transom of his boat and replacing it in wonderful brass letters with "FUDDLE DUDDLE." All and sundry, whether Liberal, Tory or NDP, seemed to get a laugh out of it.
It's one of those phrases which will be forever associated with Trudeau the Elder, Mound. And it will always elicit a smile.
.. ergh .. was legend in the making .. Shakespeare Monty Python Kabuki - Canada eh ..
But seizing the moment was glam Harper cabin toadboy Peter Van Loan who despite a ringside seat beside resplendant in orange, dipper Niki Ashton failed to look up during the moments when he never saw a damn thing.. ! Its there on THE VIDEO - the hysterical historic recording seen by millions we assume.. pudge Peter head buried in notes or texts or talking points looks up after.. wha? Puts on his glasses, the better to see what he did not see.. Kindly immune honorable winkie gave a rousing spech to Parliament next day - a complete fabrication with 'I witnessed'. ...... maybe Hansard will preserve it... or triple delete ? .. Or will he just deny he ever said it ... stay tuned for deception !
Peter will surely put his finger into the wind before he says anything, salamander.
Perhaps I'm one of those who like to look back to the reason this petulant scene occurred. A lousy bill that threw out many of the recommendations the Liberal led parliamentary committee put forth, and substituted pabulum. Even the Liberal MP leader of that committee, Rob Oliphant, had told Trudeau that he wasn't going to support C-14.
Trying to ram through a rubbish bill on a partly self-imposed timeline led to the opposition delaying attempts.
You can run around in ever-decreasing circles laying on the blame game, but if a halfways decent bill had been put forward in the first place, none of this argy-bargy would have occurred.
And now even the Senate will show us, populated by over-privileged dimwits that it is, that the bill is indeed rubbish by amending it and sending it back to the Commons, anyway.
You reap what you sow.
The bill was always going to be a tough sell, Anon. And the deadline became a problem because, first, the Harper government refused to act on the Supreme Court's direction; and, second, because -- when the deadline isn't met -- all the provinces except Quebec will be operating without a law.
The law was always going to be challenged -- in parliament and in the courts.
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