This story made me smile. Its nice to see such disfunction. With Liberal members like this we don't need an opposition.....
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/OttawaSun/News/2004/11/18/719205.html
Thu, November 18, 2004
'He can't control me'
Carolyn Parrish isn't sorry for stomping a Dubya doll, and as for the PM and fellow MPs who are seeking to curb her: 'They can all go to hell'
By JOAN BRYDEN and DAN DUGAS, CP
MAVERICK Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish says she won't heckle George Bush when he addresses Canada's Parliament later this month, but she has no intention of toning down her criticism of the "warlike" U.S. president.
Moreover, Parrish met with Prime Minister Paul Martin late yesterday to advise him that his repeated efforts to shut her up are doomed to failure and are only fuelling controversy and making him look weak.
Parrish also refused to apologize for taking part in a skit for the CBC television comedy This Hour Has 22 Minutes, in which she stomps on a Bush doll. The skit was denounced by Conservative and Liberal MPs alike.
Parrish accused her colleagues and the media of overreacting to her various pronouncements on Bush.
"It's 'backbencher burps, world ends'. It's ridiculous," she said in an interview.
Speaking shortly before her meeting with Martin, Parrish said she intended to tell him: "Every time he gets up and reprimands me, be it ever so gentle, it just feeds it and he looks like he can't control me, which he can't.
"And if he wants to know why he can't control me, I have absolutely no loyalty to this team. None.
"After what they've put me through and lots of my colleagues, they can all go to hell. But he's not going to control me so all he's going to do is end up looking weak."
Parrish said she's "not out to get" Martin. Indeed, she said "I don't care what happens to him," having lost respect for him earlier this year when he refused to intervene to ensure a "clean race" for the Liberal nomination in the Ontario riding of Mississauga-Erindale.
That ugly nomination battle, in which Parrish defeated former Liberal MP Steve Mahoney, was rife with allegations of dirty tricks on both sides.
"If he loses the next election and he has to resign, I wouldn't shed a tear over it," Parrish said of Martin.
Still, she said she sought the meeting with Martin in a bid to head off undue controversy over any anti-Bush comments she may make during the president's first state visit to Canada on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.
"I'm going to assure him when I walk through the door that there is absolutely nothing to worry about. I am not going to heckle the president of the United States, not because I have any respect for him (but because) I have respect for the office and I have respect for myself. I'd look like an idiot."
Nevertheless, she said she plans to take notes when Bush speaks and will give her opinion if asked by reporters.
"I have opinions. They're strongly held and colourfully expressed. They always have been ... I am not going to change the way I function. If I do that then (critics) have won, they've shut me down and ... there are thousands of people who agree with me."
Parrish, who was adamantly opposed to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, made headlines last year when she was overheard telling a reporter: "Damn Americans. I hate those bastards."
While she regrets that outburst, she said she has no apologies to make for any of her subsequent remarks, including her reference to supporters of the U.S. ballistic missile defence scheme as the "coalition of the idiots" or her most recent jibe that Bush is "warlike."
During the This Hour Has 22 Minutes skit, taped Tuesday in her office, Parrish said she simply followed the directions she was given by the 22 Minutes crew. She said she also kissed the Bush doll.
"Come on guys, this is humour ... I am not a monster lady. I'm not an angry wet hen. I am actually a pretty funny person and humour is one of those tonics in life."
LOL
