Mulroney
The Great!

What does the Jaw That Walks Like a Man, to borrow a phrase from Foth, have to do with the House of Infamy? Well not much, but so much of the reason for this blog, or any blog that tries to cover the BC Legislature Raids and BC Rail Trial is the failure of the local Canned West/Glowball media to even cover theses issues. Worse yet is the tendency of the same suspects to minimalise or distort the facts when they do actually pay attention to these important issues.

Don't expect much coverage of the Independent Power Producers and the transfer of water rights on most of the streams in British Columbia, other than some Campbell and Cronies P.R. about debatable future hydro power shortages (in Phoenix, Arizona). TILMA, outsourcing (often out of province or Canada) of everything including Court Clerk Services, Medical Records and Billing, BC Hydro Billing, and ferry construction aren't really important enough for much coverage in our great news outlets. They have to save prime journalistic (to use the term loosely) real estate on the "Issues and Ideas" page for advertising and puff pieces like Mulroney redux.

This paean to the man that almost single handedly (with the help of his cronies) destroyed the old Progressive Conservative Party, leaving the carcass for the Reform Church of Steven Harper to crawl into to use as a disguise, should actually be labeled as advertising. Probably it was passed off as an "opinion" piece to avoid prosecution under fairness/honesty in advertising regulations (though I'm probably dreaming to think there are any, anymore in the new de-regulated Neo-Con Paradise). Upon reading (with periodic breaks for gagging) this virtually fact free revision of recent history, one is not surprised to find that its author, Gregory Thomas, "was national co-chairman of Youth for Brian Mulroney in the 1983 Progressive Conservative leadership campaign." I can only imagine that now Mr. Thomas is writing to the Pope to nominate Lyin' Brian for canonization.

Those with a strong enough stomach can follow the link and read the whole fairy tale, but I would like to point out some of the more absurd statements it contains. The sub-title is:

Despite the views on some mean streets in Toronto, the former PM is hugely popular and has a sterling legacy

Some people might say he's lucky to be un-indicted, and owes that fact to the ability to obstruct justice from a high enough political position......hmmmm, sounds like justice in British Columbia. Paper bags full of money are somewhat of a legacy in British Columbia also. It turns out those mean streets are all in a small part of Toronto.

.....beginning just west of Spadina, proceed 700 metres or so, continue another four blocks to Yonge, then 600 metres back toward the lake under the Gardiner Expressway, you can visit most of his detractors in the space of 10 minutes.

They work in three newsrooms -- the Toronto Star's, the Globe and Mail's and the CBC's -- inter-mingling and inter-marrying, thinking no original thoughts.

In other words, kinda like the only three newsrooms in Canada that aren't owned by somebody named either Asper or Black.

And so we come to myth No. 2, the suggestion that Mulroney's legacy is somehow inferior to that of Trudeau, who, by all accounts, looked pretty good on TV.

It is grossly unfair to compare the two men. Mulroney was simply better -- a better leader, a better husband, a better father, a better man.

Mulroney's foreign policy initiatives tower in comparison to those of Trudeau -- free trade, an end to apartheid, and the expansion of NATO to include Eastern Europe.

His constitutional vision, embodied in the Meech Lake Accord, has outlived and outlasted Trudeau's Ottawa centralism.

Seems to me that Mulroney and his sycophants, like Thomas, suffer from a near terminal case of P.E.T. envy. I don't care how many times you repeat lies it still doesn't make them true. Let's examine the first statement:

• better leader? - Trudeau didn't destroy the Liberal Party, even though he led it twice as long as the Jaw took to destroy the PCs.


• a better husband? - I'll admit that Brian managed to find and keep a woman just as shallow and materialistic as himself - but better?


• better father? - Pierre appears to have produced the superior offspring, and I doubt if Justin or Alexandre would concur


• better man? - how do you determine that Greg, do you have a queer eye for the straight guys?

I'll give you Free Trade, indeed, I wish I could give it back. Did you notice there is no free trade? Free Trade is whatever the USA wants, as in the Soft Wood Lumber dispute and eventual giveaway thanks to Harper and Emerson the Quislings. But Apartheid, Brian ended it, eh? and expanded NATO too, eh? Are you sure you aren't getting confused between Brian and his BFF (Best Friend Forever) Ronnie Raygun or things that required a lot of multi-lateral co-operation?

.....Mulroney was willing to put everything on the line with Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, his most powerful ally, to secure Mandela's freedom.

Oh yeah, I didn't know Brian broke Nelson Mandela out of jail in South Africa, with Maggie and Ronnie's help. There were more countries than Canada and the ones led by Brian's hero and heroine that put pressure on the Apartheid government which led to the freeing of Mr. Mandela. What did Brian "risk" or "put on the line," by the way, in supporting the sanctions and boycott of South Africa? Oh, I get it, he was afraid that the South African government would cut off the diamond supply for Mila, and we hadn't discovered our own in the North yet!

Then Greg raves about Mulroney's Constitutional Vision - The Meech Lake Accord. I will point out just one minor point and then I will go. But in just a few words, in this case quoted from mapleleafweb (just so Greg doesn't think I'm just making stuff up, like he seems to do). Without going into the details or whys and wherefores the great legacy of the Meech Lake Accord can be summed up thusly:

The Meech Lake Accord is a set of failed constitutional amendments, proposed in the late-1980s.

I guess my buddy Kirk must have approved this ad, "heckuva job Pointy," as usual! Maybe someday there will be a genuine big-city newspaper in Vancouver or some genuine TV News - but I'm not gonna hold my breath!