Social Conservatives have a problem with the member from Parry Sound-Muskoka. They thought he was -- sort of -- on their side. Martin Patriquin writes:
Never a diehard social conservative, Clement happily aligned himself with the movement when it suited his purposes. Notably, he voted for a 2006 motion to reopen the debate on same-sex marriage, even though the principle had been ensconced in law for a year and a half at that point.
The motion, born to fail, ultimately failed, thereby allowing Stephen Harper to appear to defend “traditional” marriage without actually defending it. And Clement was a willing participant in this cynical game — just as he hedged his bets on abortion by describing himself “a six or a seven out of 10” when it comes to a woman’s right to end her pregnancy. As Christian newspaper The Interim put it in 2004, “He will go only as far right as he thinks he needs to in order to get the votes of social conservatives, but not an inch further.”
He has often cleaved to social conservatives throughout his career. Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), one of the more prominent social-conservative organizations in the country, lists 22 pieces of legislation “relating to life and family issues.” Clement has endorsed CLC positions for 15 of them, including voting against euthanasia, marijuana legislation, and a 2012 bill that would have made it illegal to discriminate against the transgendered. (He did support a similar bill in 2016, thus angering the CLC.)
Arguably his biggest gift to social conservatives was his decision, as health minister in 2008, to come out against safe-injection sites like Vancouver’s Insite. The life-saving attributes of these sites are indisputable. Since its inception in 2003, Insite intervened in over 6,000 overdoses.
Safe-injection sites are endorsed by the majority of the country’s physicians, as well as the World Health Organization. Clement called Insite an “abomination” and refused to renew the exemption the organization required to allow illicit drugs on its premises.
We are all less than paragons of virtue. And we all get in trouble when we pose as paragons of virtue. Clement is in a very uncomfortable place. It would be uncomfortable regardless. But his alliance with social conservatives seems particularly hypocritical.
There is a lesson here for all of us. But those who make an issue of their virtue should take note.
Image: VOCM
15 comments:
.. perhaps Canadians should consider themselves fortunate
as Tony Clement was not appointed Minister of Environment..
that fell to Peter Kent.. to be a Harper bumboy
servicing Ray Novak who executed Harper & PMO dicktates
Kent agreed to 'save caribou' after 5 years of dilbit abuse
by poisoning boreal wolves...
Instead, Clement .. was the funnel for 50 million to gazebos
and the beautification of Miss Koka via John boy Baird
Sadly, Clement has a humdinger of a weird hunger..
& thusly dickflops pics of his junk to strangers.. via the web
(& no I have no need of seeing his shrivelled
or astonishing member.. do I give a fluck ?)
They call this 'public service' .. dontcha know
Narcissism apears to be the order of the day, sal.
The repeated election of a timeserver like Clement calls into question the health of our democracy, Owen.
I agree, Lorne. And doing the time does not translate into time well served.
I'd like to publish your comment, Anon. But it needs to be initialled.
Conservatives and churchy types specialize in a complicated hypocrisy that makes my head spine.
Politicians do seem an unusually randy bunch. There was a certain Trudeau who snuck Leona Boyd into 24 Sussex Dr. in the trunk of his Mercedes roadster. John Turner had a reputation for working his way through the comely ranks of the civil service during his tenure. Then again, those were the days when someone like Turner could get away with patting the bum of Iona Campagnolo. I've heard so many stories about so many politicians. The culture of living out of an apartment far from home and family seems to encourage "frat boy" adventures. But dick pix to strangers still strikes me as somewhat beyond the line of parliamentary indiscretions. I'm guessing that there's a lot more to Tony Clements than has surfaced in public. Just a guess.
In case my comment was the anonymous one, here it is again.
If the guardians of the faith and opinion shapers of the Christian media can admit so readily that the flock consists so predominantly of the one-issue-voting type of extremist, it’s small wonder that the social conservatives have been such easy pickings for the libertarians and even smaller that they’ve been even easier to ignore when convenient. Each deserves the other. I don’t suppose there’s any hope that they’ll stop breeding.
And here's my initial.
JB
And often, ffd. it comes back to bite them.
It's a much bigger Cluster Fuck than just sexting and affairs while pretending to be a Family Values Paragon,
Gazebo Boy had a Security Clearance. 3 months ago his Booty Call told him she ( if it's a she) told him that she was being approached via social media and offered cash for dirt.
So, somebody, probably a Foreign Intelligence Service already was monitoring Gazebo Boy's private communications, and uncovered "enough" to make the offer. It was probably just call logs, then some legwork to establish that the repeat texts and call's were to an "inappropriate" number.
Remember the mystery "cell phone towers" popping up in Ottawa and other places.
Gazebo Boy sat on this info for 3 months, allowing whom ever it was 3 more months of "developing" information, scouring social media for example, digging up past "other inappropriate people", etc.
When the "people" attempted to blackmail Gazebo Boy personally, he came clean.
A comon method of recruiting an asset, is to:
a) get minor blackmail dirt,
b) get a blackmail payoff, ( hole dug deeper by the target)
c) reveal you are a Foreign Agent,
What was a "minor indiscretion" by the target, get's escalated quite quickly into the major crimes category.
What Security Clearance holders are required by law to do is:
- report vulnerabilities
- report attemps at compromising you
- follow the CSIS instructions to the letter*
*( they know how to best make a clean break, they know when one should resign, they know how to "get out ahead of it", and they can use the attempt to try to catch and turn the Foreign Agents, they also need to know the Foreign Services sources and methods, to be able to go forward.)
By sitting on it for 3 months, Gazebo Boy has compromised Canadian National Security.
I suspect that the recent reveleations will cause journalists to do a lot of digging, Mound.
All I can add, John, is that I agree -- wholeheartedly. You're no longer anonymous.
The evangelical crap has nothing to do with this. Sending dick picks to anyone, let alone strangers would be an idiotic move even for an antheist brothel owner.
I agree, ffibs. But, as is the case with Trump's evangelicals, their choice of allies tells you something. They stand for the principle of the means justifies the ends.
I suspect that's the case, Jay. But I'll wait for further information before I draw a conclusion about who's behind this.
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