Scott Pickup, the National Director of the Young Liberals of Canada, has posted an online petition urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper to apologize to MP Navdeep Bains following the shameless comments he made during question period last Wednesday. The text of the petition, which has garnered 430 total signatures so far, is as follows:
We the undersigned believe that Navdeep Bains is one of the brightest and most positive people in the world of politics and exhibits the kind of honesty and dedication to which every elected official should aspire. We demand that Stephen Harper apologize for unethically slandering the character of Mr. Bains and his family.
Unfortunately, experience shows that online polls, even at their best, do little to impact the political discourse in this country and a quick browse through the petition’s comments shows why. Filled with insults toward Harper and half-baked retorts from Conservative supporters, it’s a document I refuse to lend my name to, despite my feelings on the matter. MP Garth Turner might have done well to more closely examine the petition before adding his name to it and promoting it on his blog.
Taking Harper to task for smearing Bains’ family is commendable, but doing so by submitting a petition with comments like “die commie scum die!” is more than hypocritical — it’s shameful.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Garth will do what Garth can do to promote Garth. Everything else is just news.
Garth loves Garth.
I’m curious, what exactly was slanderous about Mr. Harper’s comments?
He certainly seems to love making himself an “issue” at every opportunity.
My apologies. After re-reading my post a few times, and re-considering my facts, it’s wrong to refer to Harper’s comments as slanderous. I still feel that, had those same comments been made outside the House of Commons, Harper would be facing a defamation (which both libel and slander fall under) suit or two, but it’s a moot point. I’ve changed the wording of my post.
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