[Newsbot]

<strong>Filibuster Cartoon</strong>
<strong>Title: </strong> <a href="http://www.filibustercartoons.com/archive.php?id=20061023" target="_blank">The Man Child</a> (click to view)
<strong>Date: </strong> October 23, 2006

Foreign Minister Peter MacKay has caused quite a hullabaloo recently, over some comments he made in parliament the other day. A Liberal member accused his government of destroying the environment. You\'re an animal lover, she said, how would your dog like it? \"You already have her,\" responded MacKay, pointing to the empty seat of Belinda Stronach, his former politician-girlfriend who famously dumped him when Paul Martin bribed her into becoming a Liberal. <br> <br>My favorite comment on the whole thing has come from editorialist Don Martin in the National Post: \"Stephen Harper cannot have a man child holding Canadian diplomacy in his hands.\" <br>

[Rhoffman]

Wha.....? That wasn't a childish thing to say, he merely cracked a joke about his ex- without thinking it through. And honestly, who hasn't done that at least once?

Granted, he probably should've showed a little more common sense, but had he not denied the statement and merely said he was cracking a joke this wouldn't even be local news worthy.

The staring part's definitely creepy, though.....

[JJ]

I see it as a symptom of a larger problem, really. Namely that MacKay is an enormously immature person who should not be in the position is he in. Everything in his life has been handed to him through quirks of circumstance, and episodes like these are just an embarrassing reminder of that fact.

[Tman1]

If he can do his job right, I don't see the problem other than a battle of the sexes. Of course, I haven't seen any indication that he is doing his job right so...

[stratos]

What is funny is that someone was trying to treat him like dirt make him sound like an idiot with the how would your dog like it. He fired back with a quick whited answer and got the opposition to look like a bunch of asses. Thats what has them so mad at the moment.

[Schizo]

Undoubtedly a crude thing to say, but I love the acid wit displayed.

Besides, if our VP can tell a Senator to go f*** himself, I think your foreign minister can fire back a nasty response.

[Prestwick]

True, but should that kind of behavior really be tolerated in a legislature? I mean of course this isn't the first and it won't be the last but I definitely see where J.J is coming from here.

In many countries across the west you have people put in place through a series of luck and through being in the right place at the right time (or through simple arse licking), who plainly do not have the temperament, the charisma or the ability to do their job properly or manage their brief.

Germany had Joschka Fischer (gaffe prone and photographed beating up a policeman during the turbulent 1970s), America currently has one now in the form of Donald Rumsfeld (constant gaffes, confusing statements and chronic mismanagement of the forces), the UK with most government ministers since Thatcher's time in office and Canada here with Mackay.

Mackay is an example of what Sir Robin Day would call a "here today, gone tomorrow politician."

[stratos]

Mackay is an example of what Sir Robin Day would call a "here today, gone tomorrow politician."

You never know the voters might just like this kind of "sponk" in their polotiions. The dont take shite from the opponits kind.

[Prestwick]

There is that and there is looking like a childish abrasive idiot who plainly doesn't look fit for office.

Alot of people watch and listen to Bill O'Reilly (as much of an idiot that he is) but I don't think they'd want him as Secretary of State or even President.

[Kingb0b]

One quote I like on this was on the mctv news "They wont let him back into parliament untill he appologizes to his ex-girlfriend" I could just see the ancho suppressing a laugh. As to liking his sence of humor and voting for him theres a movie about that out now its called "man of the year" and "Head of state" I think the other one was.

[sidd2600]

The both of them are nothing more than seats in chairs, if they weren't prone to Scandal, no one outside of government and their ridings would know their names.

[Prestwick]

Yeah. Apart from making abject idiots out of themselves, they are essentially nothing men.

Being loud, abusive and abrasive doesn't make you a Churchill, a Pitt the Elder or a Macdonald. Sadly this point seems to have gone over the heads of some people in western politics.

[Psudo]

I think sarcastic insults are a pretty mild occurance for a legislature. People recognize them for what they are; off-topic and politically irrelivant emotional responses. It's a heck of a lot better than the video I wonce saw of a fistfight in the Japanese legislature, or the several knife-fights in the US House of Reps just before the Civil War.

Becides, I think the joke is hilarious. =]