She’s baaaaaaaaaaack!!!
Well, not officially, but if Mississauga MP Carolyn Parrish wants to get back into the Liberal caucus, she has pretty well set the stage for a triumphant return.
Parrish, a Liberal backbencher of no particular note for 11 years, hit the spotlight when her comment, "Damn americans--I hate those bastards" was picked up by a boom microphone. Milking it for all it was worth, she appeared on the now defunct television show of alleged comedian Mike Bullard and played to the largely anti-american crowd. Parrish told the audience that her only regret was that her elderly mother was upset that she used the word, "bastards".
Parrish again appeared on television last year when she went on CBC’s "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" and stomped on a George Bush doll. Fearful Leader told her to apologize whereupon Parrish opined that she wouldn’t shed a tear if Paul Martin lost the next election and said that Martin’s advisors could go to hell. She was then dumped from the caucus and forced to sit as an independent.
During the close votes in motions of non-confidence against the government, Parrish had voted consistently with the Liberals and there were rumours that she would be welcomed back to the Liberal Party fold. It now appears that she has solidified her Liberal Party credentials and can go back at any time that she wants.
Parrish gave an interview to Jane Taber of the Globe and Mail wherein she stated what she thought of Canada’s new Chief of Defence Staff, Rick Hillier. Preparing for a new military campaign in afghanistan, the straight talking Hillier had said the obvious--the job of Canadian soldiers is to be able to kill people. Hillier also referred to terrorists (apologies to the CBC) as "murderers and scumbags".
Well, top soldier or not, that is not the way people in the land of tolerance and diversity are supposed to talk. Parrish wasted no time attacking Hillier, calling him a "testosterone-filled general". Parrish told Taber, "I’m totally offended by him… We are also not a country that is going to easily throw away 100 years of peacekeeping reputation and noble reputation in the world by a testosterone-filled general, and I think somebody should put a clamp on his mouth."
a real country that was truly serious about winning a war against terror would ostracize someone like Parrish. But Carolyn, with the aid of useful idiot Jane Tabor, has simply improved her chances of rejoining the Liberal Party before the next election by putting out the line that the Liberals want to be put out.
There has yet to be a policy that Paul Martin has been unwilling to take both sides of if it was in his political interests to do so. He wants to come across as an ally of those countries that are serious about defeating Islamic terrorism but at the same time he doesn’t want to do anything to alienate or offend the anti-american base of his party. Specifically, Martin does not want to lose Liberal support in ridings such as the one Parrish holds that are heavily Muslim. and it is this element of the Liberal Party that Carolyn Parrish is playing to.
Carolyn Parrish also denigrated and marginalized World War II veterans by her comment that Canadian soldiers have been nothing but peacekeepers for the past 100 years. The former schoolteacher completely ignored World War II and the sacrifice that these veterans and those who lost their lives made (and yes, Carolyn, Canadian soldiers did kill people) in order for the freedom of Parrish and her ilk to shoot their mouths off. The Liberal government is well known for their disregard of this country’s veterans except for the first 11 days of November.
There can be no doubt that the interview that Parrish gave to the Globe’s Jane Taber was designed to help the party that she will ultimately return to.
Perhaps when she does come back, Paul will put her into the cabinet. How does the Honourable Carolyn Parrish, Minister of Defence, sound? at least Parrish, a self described peacenik, won’t bring Canada to the brink of war with Denmark by standing on a piece of rock in the middle of nowhere.