Earlier this week, Conservatives in Ottawa staged what I’d call a show of force — letting Ottawa know that, after 15 months of their minority government, that they’ve taken over the joint.
On the same night at Ottawa landmark hotel, the Chateau Laurier, two dinners were held in banquet rooms right across from each other. The combined guests of honour included two Conservative prime ministers; five former Conservative premiers; and dozens of Conservative MPs.
In one room, enjoying filet mignon served very late because of all the speeches ahead of time, were about 500 people including Prime Minister Harper and Prime Minister Mulroney and (listed as I spotted them):
- Federal cabinet: Secretary of State Jason Kenney, Government House Leader Peter Van Loan, Industry Minister Maxime Bernier, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn.
- Former premiers: Roy Romanow (Saskatchewan)
- Senators: David Angus, Noel Kinsella, Raynell Andreychuk, Gerry St. Germain.
- Conservative MPs: Dave Mackenzie; Dean Del Mastro, Rahm Jaffer, Colin Mayes, Rick Dykstra, Steven Fletcher, James Rajotte, Lee Richardson, Peter Goldring, Ted Menzie
Across the hall, in another room, the (Preston)Manning Centree for Building Democracy was celebrating its first ‘graduates’. In that room, roast beef was on the menu. Reform Party founders Preston Manning and Cliff Fryars were joined by about 210 people, by my count, which included (in order, pretty much as I spotted them):
- Federal cabinet: Environment Minister John Baird, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Rona Ambrose, Chief Government Whip Jay Hill, Health Minister Tony Clement, Human Resources Minister Monte Solberg
- Former premiers: Ralph Klein (Alberta), Bernard Lord (New Brunswick), Gary Filmon (Manitoba), John Hamm (Nova Scotia).
- Conservative MPs: Art Hangar, Diane Ablonczy, Jim Abbott, Leon Benoit, Michael Chong, Sylvie Boucher, Lynn Yelich, Pierre Poilievre, Chris Warkentin
- Other notables: Conservative campaign director Doug Finley, Conservative blogger Stephen Taylor
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I direct your attention to this quote from the speech made that evening by our former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney:
“The lesson for Canada is clear: To grow and prosper we must open our doors to immigrants and refugees in greater and greater numbers, because they and they alone will provide us with the energy, creativity and brilliance needed to sustain and enhance our role as an admired and influential nation through the next millennium.”(end quote)
Does it not strike you as the least bit newsworthy, or debatable, or insulting, that Mr. Mulroney just said that Canadians lack the energy, creativity, and brilliance to sustain themselves, let alone prosper and advance? There's really no wiggle room here; Mr. Mulroney plainly stated that compared to immigrants we Canadians are lacking in energy, lacking in creativity, and lacking in brilliance. Do you agree with this? I sure don't.
And according to Mr. Mulroney we even can't sustain, let alone enhance, our society without increasing what is already the highest immigration rate in the world.
Even accounting for the probability that Mr. Mulroney was using politically correct language to say something along the lines of “we need more immigration to pay for our social programs” he could have made that point (a point which concedes that the welfare state is an unsustainable pyramid scheme, I might add) without gratuitously insulting to the work ethic, creativity, and intelligence of the Canadian people.
Nah- he just knows the demographics.