This a pretty humiliating issue...dumping a guy for a Cabinet post. This is a tremendous political issue...The other thing that's changed in Ottawa is that half of the press gallery are women and women find this very offensive...You and I might have a different word for a dog, at least I would have a different word for a dog that I would use to describe her to decribe what she's done to the Domi family and how she dumped Peter MacKay.That's right. Don't call women dogs because they're half the press gallery!
"I believe that Mr. Rae in particular will bring clarity to the important issues of the day in ways that unite the country," Kadis said.This statement speaks volumes about the concern many Canadians feel about the Constitutional can of worms that Ignatieff opened up last weekend. As well, her praise for Rae's experience, clarity and "consistency" underscored the qualities she felt Ignatieff was lacking when she withdrew her support from him earlier this month.
OTTAWA (CP) - Not even supporters of Liberal leadership frontrunner Michael Ignatieff agree what his proposal to recognize Quebec as a nation would mean.
Reaction is all over the map: some Ignatieff supporters express outright opposition, some cautiously endorse it, and others enthusiastically welcome it as a first step toward recognizing every province as a nation. Their conflicting views are prompting more doubts about the wisdom of raising the idea in the first place.
"In British Columbia, people recognize the (linguistic) duality of Canada," Victoria MP Keith Martin, an Ignatieff supporter, said in an interview Tuesday.
"But they recognize one Canada, one nation, one country."
Martin urged Liberals to focus on issues that are common priorities for Quebecers and other Canadians, like health care, rather than get caught up in a potentially divisive debate over "nomenclature."
At the other extreme, Newfoundland MP Gerry Byrne, another Ignatieff supporter, said recognizing Quebec as a nation is no big deal. He said Acadians and aboriginal peoples are routinely called nations, so why not a province? Indeed, why not his own province?
"We are a nation of nations so I don't really see this as a thin edge of the wedge issue," Byrne said in an interview.
He noted that Newfoundland and Labrador "was actually a nation until 1949" when it joined Canada. And he wouldn't rule out recognizing Ontario or other provinces as nations as well.
But Byrne's use of the word nation to describe Newfoundland's past status as a separate country is precisely the kind of confusion the word engenders and which worries other Liberals.
Ignatieff points out the term does not imply a separate state. In his platform, Ignatieff contends that Quebecers' language, history, culture and territory "marks them out as a separate people" who should be recognized as a nation. He also says that recognition, as well as the recognition of aboriginal first nations, should eventually be enshrined in the Constitution.
Over the weekend, the Quebec wing of the party, which is dominated by Ignatieff supporters, passed a resolution calling for the recognition of Quebec as a nation.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe and other prominent separatists have since said such recognition must be backed up by more powers for the province or it will be dismissed as meaningless symbolism.
But Ignatieff himself has ruled out any change in the division of powers and some of his supporters clearly wouldn't be comfortable with anything more than a strictly symbolic gesture.
Marc Lalonde, fomer Quebec Liberal kingpin during the Pierre Trudeau era, said he has no qualms about the proposal, "provided that it's clear what you mean by nation."
"Spain has recognized Catalonia as a nation and Spain has not blown up," said Lalonde, who supports Ignatieff.
Nova Scotia MP Robert Thibault, another Ignatieff fan, said recognition of nationhood "doesn't mean special status," although he conceded it will probably be hard to explain to Canadians. Nevertheless, he said he's not sure if he'll support the Quebec wing's resolution when it is put to a vote during the party's national leadership convention in December.
The potential for the debate to divide Quebec Liberals against those from other parts of the country worries Stephane Dion, the lone Quebec candidate. While he personally has no problem recognizing Quebec as a nation, Dion thinks the debate over constitutional recognition is fraught with unnecessary risk.
"I don't want this disagreement to be interpreted as a rejection of Quebec by other Canadians. . . or a rejection by our party of the Quebec wing of our party," Dion said.
"This is the most ideologically driven administration in my memory, so obstinate in resisting facts, dissenting opinions ... [They entered the White House] with a set of preconcieved notions." Obama said. "I think this administration has done great damage to this country."
"I wouldn't fit in with this administration [because I think] actually being informed is a good basis for policy," Obama said to laughter.
Douglas 'appalled' at Republicans
October 22, 2006
The Associated Press
MONTPELIER -- Gov. Jim Douglas, who co-chaired President Bush's election campaigns in Vermont in 2000 and 2004, now says he is "appalled" at the behavior of Washington Republicans and lays some of the blame on the White House.
Douglas said he would like to see a change in his party's leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives, saying House Speaker Dennis Hastert should be replaced even if Republicans retain a majority in Congress.
Hastert has been criticized for his response to the scandal surrounding former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who resigned recently amid allegations that he had sent sexually explicit text messages to underage congressional pages.
Douglas, who is running for his third two-year term, is usually reluctant to criticize Washington Republicans, particularly President Bush. But now he says the administration is part of the problem.
"I certainly don't want to imply that only the congressional branch of government is at fault," he said. "Both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are caught up in scandal to some extent, and I don't want to suggest that the executive branch is excluded from responsibility for the breakdown of ethical standards."
Douglas said he is feeling more disillusioned than at any time during his three decades in politics.
"I'm appalled, I'm discouraged, I'm offended and, frankly, as someone who's been in office for many years, it's awful to see how some people who are given the public trust can breach it," Douglas said. "It's not exclusively a Republican problem down there, but it certainly seems that those caught up are predominantly Republicans."
Aware that his days in Cabinet are numbered due to the "Puppygate scandal", Peter MacKay tries out for a job as a crosswalk guard.