by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
april 12, 2004
Sheila Copps has come full circle. Twenty years ago as an esteemed member of the Liberal Rat Pack she engaged in silly antics, screaming in the House and jumping over tables during committee meetings. It was during those days when Tory MP, John Crosbie, yelled "pass the tequila, Sheila". Perhaps the MP from Hamilton East should have passed it.
When the Liberal Party came to power in 1993, Copps became a bit more sensible and rose to the position of Deputy Prime Minister. Perhaps her most memorable moment in that office was when Jean Chrétien was on one of his many European jaunts and a reporter jokingly asked a government spokesman who was running the country. He answered, " I guess Sheila is" and the stock market went down. There are some things that you just can’t make jokes about.
Sheila’s last cabinet portfolio was Heritage. Being the Minister of Heritage allowed her to engage in the Liberal pastime of seeing to it that her friends, associates and more importantly, her supporters, were well taken care of by way of generous government grants, all given in the name of protecting Canadian culture, whatever that is. That portfolio also gave Copps, a member of the outer left fringes of the Liberal Party, an opportunity to protect Canadian citizens from such american evils as Time Magazine and reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond.
although Copps has not been implicated in the current advertising scandal, she spent her government years feeding at the trough just like alfonso Gagliano and David Dingwall and all Chrétien’s cronies. She was an integral part of what is arguably the most corrupt government since Confederation and she is an expert at how the game is played. But prime minister’s come and go and Jean Chrétien came and went. Whenever there is a change at the top, the new leader replaces those who were loyal to the last guy with their supporters and Paul Martin was no exception. Copps, like other top Chrétoonies was dumped from Cabinet. But unlike the others, Sheila refused to go away, quietly or otherwise. She turned down an offer to become the Canadian ambassador to France and decided to run for Parliament again. and that’s when things started to get interesting.
Sheila picked the new riding of Hamilton-Stoney Creek to seek the nomination in and was opposed by Martin supporter and Minister of Transport, Tony Valeri. Valeri won and, surprise surprise, sweet little Sheila discovered Liberal Party sleaze and corruption. Eureka!!
after losing the nomination she accused Paul Martin, the guy who slowly took control of most of the riding associations in Canada, of dirty tricks. She had the nerve to accuse Valeri supporters of preventing her supporters from parking near the voting site even though she was filmed by CBC clearly talking about how her troops were going to block the parking lot with buses to prevent Valeri supporters from parking. Copps even laughed as she speculated many of her opponent’s supporters would end up parking at a nearby supermarket and hopefully get towed away.
Suddenly a victim of the Liberal sleaze that she was a part of all those years, Sheila cried foul. She ranted. She raved. Copps wants the nomination process investigated by the auditor-General and Elections Canada and if she weren’t so anti-american she would probably try to call the Marines in. Copps even contacted Democracy Watch for help. Calling her request "strange" and "deeply ironic", the watchdog group refused to help her on the grounds that they are investigating her for, of all things, ethical breaches.
Sheila Copps has been reduced to being a mere parody of her old self. What was entertaining from a 30-something member of the opposition is downright embarrassing coming from a 51-year-old former deputy prime minister. Sheila Copps can’t face the reality that "nobody’s baby" has in fact become nobody’s baby.
Copps has become proof positive of the old maxim that power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely and loss of power corrupts even more.