Truly, truly sorry

[nihilicious]

Here's the latest pretend "scandal" to hit Ottawa: MP's anti-gay remarks spark outrageObviously a headline like that grabs my attention. Then we discover that he made these comments sixteen years ago. While drinking at a party, among friends. And the comments are to the effect that some guys are "homosexual faggots with dirt under their

Comments

[montrealais]

Oh, come on. You don't just wake up in the morning and decide to say something like that. I could see it if he had just said "those faggots" or made a limp-wrist gesture or something that was obviously a stupid frat-boy joke, but this is really beyond the pale. A forty-year-old man stares into a video camera (which in itself should raise questions about his judgment) and calls us disease-ridden, inferior faggots.

I could also see it if he had, indeed, changed his ways, but he has a 100% anti-gay voting record and fought same-sex marriage. Sure he said those things, but the real problem is that they obviously reflect how he feels now. We all know to what extent Harper has tried to get his MPs to hide their true feelings on the subject (except in their voting records), since his 2004 campaign was torpedoed by them. When a Conservative MP is caught on tape expressing his true homophobic beliefs, I think that's a matter of significant moment.

The previous MP for Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre was kicked out for also making anti-gay comments - he called for homosexuality to be recriminalized. He ran as an independent and lost massively. The people of that riding deserve to know what kind of homophobe their MP is, and Canadians don't deserve to have someone like that in office.

Also, I really reject the notion that blatant homophobia is inherently less important than any other issue, so that we can only discuss it when all other things are solved, as well as the notion that when we bring up and challenge blatant homophobia, it means we have no time left over to do anything else. The same day, New Democrats in the House spoke on a range of important issues, including affordable housing, the SPP, public transit, the Conservatives' regressive immigration policies, climate change, industrial job losses, official languages, education savings plans, and genetically modified foods.

[nihilicious]

Blatant homophobia is definitely an issue that we should address.

Somebody's stupid joke at a party in 1991 is not the kind of blatant homophobia I worry about.

And yeah, he voted against same-sex marriage, along with a big chunk of sitting MPs. Opposing gay marriage is a political issue, and while I disagree with him, I don't expect him to resign over it.

I'm glad the NDP is doing other things. Funny though, none of that other stuff is on the front page of any paper today. I'm sure the NDP political strategists are flabbergasted.

I don't believe that we can only address one real political issue at a time. But, I think when our political bandwidth is chewed up by political non-issues, it does hamper our ability to get politics done.

There's a reason that Harper can win elections by muzzling his troops. It's because we've trained an electorate only to respond to outrageous and scandalous comments. Once it takes something like that to get people's attention, no wonder they stop voting on the basis of policy.