May 03, 2005
Volpe off the rails
The election hasn't even been called yet, but Joe Volpe - a Minister of the Crown - just couldn't wait to begin the smear campaign:
The Conservatives want an apology from Immigration Minister Joe Volpe for comparing them to the Ku Klux Klan.
The Opposition party is made up of racists, Volpe said Tuesday, calling members recognizable "notwithstanding that they don't have their cowl and their cape." "The Klan looks like it's still very much alive," the minister added.
Volpe made the comments in response to a magazine graphic in which Liberals are depicted as The Liberanos, a mocking reference to the television Mafia show The Sopranos.
A pair of Conservative MPs - Lee Richardson and Werner Schmidt - were photographed this week pointing to the graphic from the Western Standard magazine.
[...]
Volpe blasted the two Tory MPs for using the graphic as a political prop.
"I think these are a couple of fine, upstanding members of the new Conservative Klan," Volpe said, holding up the picture outside the House of Commons.
Volpe owes his party, and all Canadians, an apology, Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer responded.
"To hear a minister of the Crown make that kind of insinuation about anybody, whether they are his political opponents or not, is reprehensible," Jaffer said in a written statement.
"Volpe is trivializing the hatred, violence, and murder practised by the Klan," he added.
"He has sunk to a new low - one unbefitting a minister of the Crown, and unbefitting a parliamentarian."
Volpe said the graphic is one more example proving that the Conservatives don't understand immigrants, and don't understand "how Canada works."
Blogger Distrudeaupia watched the meltdown on CBC Newsworld. (Video here, and it has to be seen to be believed.) Some Liberals throw around the "racism" smear as a cynical political move, while the likes of Volpe and Hedy Fry genuinely believe the word applies to anyone who doesn't support the NaturalGoverningParty. I'm not sure which is worse.
Posted by damian at May 3, 2005 11:40 PM | TrackBack