Mr. Anders’ remarks were–well, RickJay summed it up best when he said “vile.”
I understand that we have political differences in this country; that political parties might be left, right, or centre; and that Canadians can agree or disagree with those positions. Parliament is where parties of all leanings hash out the issues, and MPs are the people we choose to hash out those issues. But I always hope that no matter which party MPs belong to, they comport themselves as ladies and gentlemen, both in- and outside of the Commons. Much like we demand here at the SDMB, I would hope that they attack the argument, not the person arguing it.
In this case, it doesn’t sound like there was even an argument. Mr. Anders attacked Mr. Mulcair, and brought his reputation into disrepute.
I’m reminded of Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner and his “Crime Against Kansas” speech, which he delivered in the US Senate in May, 1856. Senator Preston Brooks of North Carolina hated Senator Sumner’s speech so much, that he walked over to Senator Sumner, and beat him senseless. Senator Brooks later did the honorable thing, and resigned. While no physical harm was inflicted by Mr. Anders’ remarks, it seems to me that harm was caused regardless; and so, he might take a lesson from Senator Brooks.
OK, as someone who worked on CF-18s for 10+ years and has spent the better part of the last 10 on Electronic warfare, looking at what’s out there, I can catagorically say that the F-35 is NOT the best by a long shot. The RCAF has a long history of buying version 1 and spending a lot of money and time correcting its shortcomings. The Australians have a lot of the same issues as we do and they are opting for Super Hornets in the short term and something else in the long term. If you have any doubts at all look at www.ausairpower.net.
The F-35 is a dog right now and until LocMart pulls its head out of its ass and produces airframes on time and remotely on budget, thanks but no thanks.
That makes a hell of a lot of sense to me . Less potential for catastrophic environmental damage in the coastal mountain ranges, the west coast and the east coast/St Lawrence Seaway.
I had such admiration for Mr. Harper for his response to the death of Mr. Layton. The respect he conveyed for a political opponent in the gesture of giving a state funeral, the public statement and the very moving personal remark -
all made me think more highly of Mr. Harper than I ever had. And I have absolutely no reason to doubt the sincerity of his words.
In light of that, I would not want to be in Mr. Anders’ shoes the next time he has a meeting with the Prime Minister.
That seems to me to simply be increasing the costs in a different way. Maybe you end up with more worked-in F-35s, but you’ve also bought two set of aircraft.
At the rate things are going I suspect Canada will end up with Super Hornets or with a later version of the F-35 after dragging our current fleet out wayyyy too long. But the thing is the government hasn’t bought a single F-35. The terrible sin of buying these allegedly horrible planes hasn’t happened. The government (a long time ago, under the Liberals) got in on the ground floor of a NATO/Western project to have a joint multirole fighter, which made perfect sense. They stuck with it, which made sense, and now that the project is in trouble they are balking at buying the finished product, which makes sense. I cannot for the life of me see where the government - either Liberal or Conservative - has erred. I think the Conservatives did understate the costs (fr what reason I really don’t understand) but that is a different matter.
As to the RCAF having a “long history of buying version 1,” that just isn’t at all true. The Forces bought the Hornet (technically, the “CF-188” for some reason) early in its life cycle but previous buys were generally of established (and often second-rate) aircraft. The purchase of the cheap, obsolescent Freedom Fighter was the one preceding the Hornet, and before they the RCAF bought Starfighters, which were well established aircraft when the RCAF got them.
I mean, it’s to be expected that a modern air force will ALWAYS be working out the bugs on its fighters. How could it be otherwise? They’re perpetually tinkering with them. The US Navy came up with an overhauled version of the Tomcat a few years before they completely retired them.
Oh, so YOU’RE the one who voted for him. Shame on you. Shame!
I’ve mentioned it before, but I somewhat knew Anders and his good buddy Ezra Levant back in my university days and they were both a couple of insuffereable douchebags then and have only become moreso with age.
It blows my mind that Anders has managed to avoid getting punted from caucus long ago. He’s an utter waste of skin. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that he keeps getting re-elected, however. Albertans are loathe to vote against the grain, as a general rule (not just** the Lady**). Fingers crossed he’s finally done enough damage to change that if he survives to the next election.
Like it or not, this sort of change has to happen within the party. As bad a douche as Anders is, the people in his riding know that his primary purpose in life is to vote with the government. If they voted for a nicer Liberal that’s nice but it would have put Michael Ignatieff a seat further ahead.
We sometimes like to pretend that the parliamentary system is a pure representational thing where you’re just voting in your local MP and what happens in Parliament happens, but that just is not the case. The voters know full well that what matters where the ballot says “Rob Anders - Conservative” is the last part, not the first part.
In my election I personally liked the Liberal candidate more than either the Conservative or NDP candidates (although they seemed decent enough) but I simply would not vote for her. As much as I liked her, the fact is that the primary effect of my vote would be to propel Michael Ignatieff, a man I found detestable and incompetent, one seat closer to an office for which he was totally unsuited, at the head of a party I felt was in no position to govern the country. So I chose between the CPC and NDP, even though I liked the Liberal candidate.
So really, you can’t blame the people of Calgary West for voting the way the system drives them to vote. You can, however, blame the Calgary West riding association for continuing to offer this utter cockknock up as their candidate.
And each time there are rumours of nasty backroom dealings and ugly fights - and each time we get Anders back. Maybe this time he really has gone too far.
Don’t count on it, thanks to Alberta’s collective mentality, otherwise known as “independent character.”
It’s likely Anders received a Santa Claus-size sack of congratulatory emails and phone-call transcripts from the same people who kept Premier Wet Brain, destroyer of hospitals, in office for 14 years, along with such MLAs as Victor Doerkson member of Bible-Belt-North.
Lawmaker Doerkson, Of Mice and Men’s sworn enemy,
”There are plenty of good literature out there,” irony-free Doerkson said later, no doubt referring to Up and Down Pleasant Street, though he hadn’t been in Grade 2 for at least five years.
Alberta, Anders’ raison d’être, is truly representative of that province’s population, which is why he’ll run and win again. The province is the Federal Reform Party’s base, where people think and speak as he does from morning 'til night, and are proud of it.
I think we covered this already - the political parties give a riding a candidate, and the people in that riding have to choose which party’s candidate to support. We don’t get to say, “I want to support the Conservative Party, but not that asshole.”
And, why do you hate Alberta? We’re actually a very nice bunch of people.
Point of fact, the riding association has tried to oust Anders and got blocked by the Party, resulting in most of the association quitting. So I’d hardly blame them for Anders; the Party for some reason insists on keeping him around.
The reason is pretty clear, and is in the last line of the article:
He provides a sure seat for the party. Yes, it’s Calgary, and the Tories are strong there, but why would the party take a chance on anything that lessens their hold on that seat?
Calgary West is an old election riding for Stephen Harper and Anders has protection from the top of the house - in fact, he stepped in once Stephen Harper moved on to bigger and better things. So, if you are going to point to why is this douche still in Parliament then, let’s at least get our facts together. Harper is on record (I’ll look it up) saying some really great things about this guy.
I’m hoping desperately that this latest outrage is indeed the final straw; that buffoon doesn’t represent me or my opinions or those of anyone I know living here.
And in other news, Justin Trudeau starts his bid for the Liberal leadership in Calgary today. Interesting choice - does that mean he’s trying to mend fences between Alberta and the Trudeau Liberals? He’s got his work cut out for him if that’s the case.
