National Post 26/03/03
Carolyn Parrish, the Liberal MP who last month called Americans "bastards," says she has suffered extreme emotional stress because of the controversy caused by her remarks and blames "media vultures and political jackals" for the impact on her career.
Ms. Parrish, who later joked about the anti-U.S. statement on a national TV talk show, last week wrote a parliamentary colleague complaining she was a victim of people who sought to turn her comments into a media event.
"The recent 'disaster' was a terrible blow to me and my family. The relentless, extreme emotional pressure was, at times, intolerable," Ms. Parrish wrote in a March 20 letter to David Price, the Quebec Liberal MP who this week replaced her as chairman of the NATO Canadian Parliamentary Association.
"Through it, I learned a lot. I learned that such disasters can hit any one of us, and many wonderful people on [Parliament] Hill recognized that -- and offered me strength and comfort. I also learned, there is a minority of persons who revel in the misfortunes of other -- and try to run those misfortunes into sound bites, media events -- and opportunities to further their own agendas."
Ms. Parrish, MP for Mississauga Centre, was forced to apologize last month to Paul Cellucci, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, for an offhand remark to reporters outside the House of Commons, where she said: "Damn Americans. I hate those bastards." She also expressed regret in Parliament for her remarks.
But in a move that outraged many of her colleagues, Ms. Parrish then appeared on Open Mike with Mike Bullard and made light of the controversy. She said her words were aimed, not at Americans, but at "eight or nine" individuals in the U.S. administration.
"I can't even promise it won't happen again," she said, adding, "I'm not critical of the media, because if I got some lunatic saying something like that I'd use it, too."
But in her letter to Mr. Price, she blames the media and political enemies for the fallout from her remarks, which included a campaign by Liberal MPs to have her removed as chair of the NATO Canadian parliamentary association. She opted not to seek re-election to the position.
"I shared with you my concern that media vultures and political jackals should not be selecting chairs of committees," she wrote.
Ms. Parrish goes on to criticize Mr. Price for challenging her for the chairmanship. "You have shown yourself to be an opportunist, more than once," she writes.
Ms. Parrish's office did not return telephone calls yesterday.
With all due respect.
Blow it out your shorts.
This illustrates why I don't vote for women. They're almost always unqualified for the hurly-burly of politics; they emit the stupidest comments imaginable; and when you call them on it, they retreat into "cringing victim" mode, fancying themselves invulnerable. Too often they're right.
When the socialist Bob Rae government came unexpectedly into power in Ontario, a great number of women were elected. Almost none of them had political experience -- they were teachers, social workers, party apparatchiks. (Or, apparatchicks. Heh.)
And it showed when they got into Cabinet.
Rookie errors like, oh, yakking about a complainant's medical file. At a party. With his name attached.
There's a reason that lawyers seem to succeed more often than others in politics: They're cautious, circumspect, and ever alert to tripwires.
Women selected by quota aren't, but they've always got that last-ditch bio/chem card to play:
Tears.
No man can stand against them. No man can answer them but to impotently flutter about and wonder what to cure it. (Tea? Footrub?)
And so we had a parade of Bob's Babes blubbering at Queen's Park, offering their resignations.
The Oppos would leap to their feet, shouting "No! No!"
Typical fucking lawyers, taking things literally.
And Madam Minister would take her seat again, a figurative smile curling her lips.
It's always bad to hire someone you can't fire.