Warren Kinsella: the Impiety of the Pious, Robert Fulford: "Canada's handout culture"

Volumes, someone once remarked, can be written on the impiety of the pious. Warren Kinsella, May 13, 2005, National Post via JR and RC

[. . . . ] For me, this week's controversy stirred memories of one dark evening, approximately three years ago, when I very nearly quit the Liberal Party of Canada. It was the night that Mr. Martin's British Columbia apparatchiks took over the riding association of former Cabinet minister Herb Dhaliwal, knowing (a) Mr. Dhaliwal was out of the country; and (b) his wife was dying of cancer.

Having written a book with the title Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics, and having seen more than a few political donnybrooks in my day, I cannot claim to believe that politics is ever played with the Marquess of Queensbury rulebook. It is not, it has never been, and it never will be. But to humiliate a Cabinet colleague whose wife was dying of cancer? I've witnessed a lot of political thuggery, but I had never before seen anything as disgusting as that. It was only a friend in Ottawa who talked me out of quitting the Liberal party, on that night.

[. . . . ] But ask yourself a question: If, as Mr. Gray wrote, the federal Liberal leader's lieutenants were permitted "to hijack the riding of a cabinet colleague whose wife was dying of cancer," would they then hesitate, even a moment, to take advantage of the illnesses of two MPs who aren't cabinet colleagues?

PM will grovel for votes, lie, spend other people's money like a drunken sailor. He has no concept of what is honourable. An embarrassment. In short, a PM with no class.




Canada's handout culture -- Gay and not so proud: Noriega of the north Robert Fulford, National Post, May 14, 2005

The ugly truth of this sour political springtime is that no one was surprised when Paul Martin discarded his principles, made a financial treaty with the New Democrats and then went across Canada throwing money in all directions, some $20-billion in all, give or take a few billion.

[. . . . ] Our method of government corrupts expectations and frustrates progress. In one crucial way it resembles our health system: We know it doesn't work but we can't imagine changing it. So we live in a culture of grantsmanship and special pleading. Whether you make a movie or an aircraft, you require government money, therefore government approval. The system leaks into the arts like poison in the water table, explaining every failure. If our broadcasting is mediocre, as it usually is, we can say that the government doesn't give us enough money. Who can argue with that? Almost everyone says the same thing.

[. . . . ] In 1980, I despised Jimmy Carter but had no hope for the movie actor the Republicans put up against him. I was colossally wrong. The tragedy of contemporary Canadian politics is that we never had a Reagan.

Watch for the hysteria on CBC over the idea that the spigot might be closed.

I just watched some superb nature programs on PBS. Privatize CBC and get it completely out of reporting the news and politics for it is a government agency.

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