Editorial
This article has 22 words on Carolyn Parrish

Canadian politics is boring. Sure they get into little spats and yell at each other in the House of Commons, but overall our politicians are pretty dull. So when a loudmouth backbencher from Mississauga decided to bash Bush, people noticed. When she dissed Americans, people started to pay attention. When she stomped on a doll of the President and admitted that she doesn’t care if the Prime Minister gets re-elected, she got kicked out of the Liberal Caucus. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Carolyn Parrish.

Some would call her a patriotic martyr while others would call her a yappy moron who didn’t know when to keep her mouth shut. Regardless of personal opinions, it is probably safe to say that the liberal Liberal overstepped her bounds.

When it comes right down to it, I find it hard to continue supporting Parrish. Sure, I’m not exactly pro-American, and yes, I suppose I am liberal. I’ll admit, after the first few comments she made in the House, I laughed and thought “finally, a politician with the balls to say what she believes.” But in all honesty, who is surprised at the outcome of her latest stunt. Nobody was, not even Parrish.

To her credit though, Parrish remains determined to stand by her party. She said in a recent interview that she intends to stand beside Martin and the Liberal Party on issues put before the House of Commons, and will even vote with them on many bills. I would not have been surprised had Parrish decided to vote independently from the Liberals in an effort to separate herself from them and develop herself as an Independent Member of Parliament. Instead, she is sticking by her guns and staying true to her beliefs, something that can be increasingly more difficult to do in the cutthroat world of politics.

In Martin’s defense, it is pretty easy to see where he was coming from when he ousted Parrish from the caucus. He had given her numerous previous warnings, and has been involved in a constant restructuring effort with U.S. officials to rebuild the economic and political relations between Canada and the United States. And to top it off, President Bush is due to speak in front of Parliament next month. While Martin’s efforts at rebuilding dealings between the two great nations is not exactly working as he had probably hoped, having an abrasive MP yelling at the American President probably wouldn’t have helped things any further. I don’t think anybody can really blame the guy.

Unfortunately for all of us media types, our jobs are once again going to delve into a meaningless existence when it comes to writing commentaries about the crazy antics of the House of Commons. What will we talk about? Steven Harper? Please, the colour of the carpet on the floor is more interesting than that guy.

Let’s face it, without Carolyn Parrish, Canadian politics is back on its collision course with obscurity. Barely anybody cares enough to vote in our elections, and now that the only interesting person we had going for us is facing mutiny from her constituents, Paul’s House is going to be about as boring and depressing as John Kerry’s. Two insults in one sentence? I’m leaving on an up-note, thank you and good night.

Steven Kiser
Commentary Editor