by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
January 7, 2005
No one is indispensable. as we all know, MP Carolyn Parrish was booted out of the Liberal caucus after her vitriol, usually reserved for the "bastards" and the "idiots" to the south, was spewed at Prime Minister Paul Martin and his inner circle. and as nature abhors a vacuum, it was only a matter of time before a successor stepped up to the plate.
In the wake of the horrific tsunamis that ravaged parts of South asia, acting Prime Minister Bill Graham (acting in the sense that Graham appeared to be the only relevant cabinet minister that felt that a couple of waves were not a good reason to cut short a vacation) thought it was necessary to tell his fellow Liberal MPs that they should not be critical of President Bush for forming a coalition to provide aid to the victims of what appears to be the worst natural disaster in history.
Toronto Liberal MP Maria Minna was quoted in the National Post as saying, "I have serious concerns about this coalition that the United States is putting together. My reaction to this is very negative…It sounds like this is [Bush’s] counterpart to the coalition of the willing in Iraq. I resent it. We are coming across like we are joining a coalition of the willing in the U.S."
at least Canadians will be spared Minna doing her anti-american act on television like Parrish did on CBC’s This Hour has 22 Minutes and on the former show of alleged comedian, Mike Bullard. It’s highly unlikely that the un-photogenic and charismatically-challenged Minna will ever be sought out to do guest appearances on TV. But it only took Minna a couple of days after the tsunamis hit to bring Liberal government anti-americanism to a new level.
In many ways, what Maria Minna said was worse than any of the comments that Carolyn Parrish made. although Parrish was overheard by a boom microphone saying "Damn americans — I hate those bastards" and later referred to the coalition in the Iraq war as the "coalition of idiots", her statements were all made within the context of the war in Iraq. The fact that her comments were related to the war does not excuse her — the NDP have repeatedly shown how to criticize and oppose U.S. foreign policy without resorting to childish comments and antics. Carolyn Parrish’s comments, as childish and bush league as they were, were at least made in the context of the war which is a divisive issue in the United States as well as in this country. as badly as Parrish made Canada look, she did have her supporters within the anti-war crowd in the United States.
as much as the Iraq war has its supporters and opponents, there does not seem to be much if any divergence of opinion, either in Canada or the United States concerning sending aid to the devastated regions of South asia. Yet Minna instinctively opposes Bush’s formation of a coalition to bring food, medicine and other relief supplies to save the lives of residents of the affected areas, many of whom are babies and children. Her hatred of the United States does not stem from a foreign policy decision but from a pure hatred of the United States. There can be no other rationale for her comments. and Minna obviously lacks Carolyn Parrish’s political instincts — one of the first things that Paul Martin did when he returned from sunning himself in Morocco was to join the Great Satan’s coalition of the United States, Japan and India in order to help coordinate the relief efforts.
at least Maria Minna’s "very negative" response to Bush’s relief efforts teaches us all something. Contrary to what some such as U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell think, the West’s efforts to save the lives of Muslims in the devastated countries are not going to make the terrorists like us. If a Liberal MP such as Maria Minna can hate the United States so much that she opposes their humanitarian efforts and compares helping the sick, dying and displaced to a war, it is extremely unlikely that Osama and his boys are going to see the West in a new light.
Bill Graham was much too busy single handedly running the government to take the time to tell the Liberal caucus to cool their anti-americanism unless he knew that it was about to surface.
Maria Minna put her anti-americanism ahead of the destroyed lives of tsunami victims. She’s more of a disgrace to this country than Carolyn Parrish ever was or could be.
If Paul Martin was a real leader; something that he’s rarely accused of being, he would throw Minna out of the caucus. Let her sit in the corner of the House next to Parrish; she might learn something.