Please Don't Boil My Dog's Head!

This appears in today's Toronto Star:

In an interview Wednesday, Emerson said he made the remark about Layton in a speech at a dinner during the B.C. federal Liberals' convention the weekend before the election call. He said it wasn't meant to be disrespectful.
"It was in reference to his constant chattering away with this great big grin on his face, pasted on, kind of an over-extended grin," Emerson said.
"It's a Cantonese expression which I use on myself and my wife uses on me all the time when I have to pose for pictures."
"I was referring to constantly seeing Jack Layton looking like a boiled dog's head, talking about some of these shallow, ideologically driven policies of the NDP."

The Star story includes the racial implications of the statement, which I didn't know of myself. However, the rather vulgar image of someone boiling a dog's head and plastering it on Jack Layton's face is enough to make one wonder why somebody would make such a public statement. Secondly, and this is something I've had to make a statement about before: when did it become a perjorative to have "ideologically driven policies?" Heaven forbid somebody in this country actually have a core set of beliefs that they build their policies around. Of course, we could go off on Paul Martin's neoliberal-inspired deficit reduction and budget-balancing, but that would be the good kind of ideologically driven policy, wouldn't it? Furthermore, it would probably force the Liberals to actually have to draw a comparison between themselves and Stephen Harper's so-called "neoconservative" "hidden agenda." They'd have to forfeit either their own "beliefs" because they were often similar to the Conservative leader's own views, or drop the always-scary-in-Canada "neoconservative" label.
Reportedly Emerson's comments appeared on the LPCBC President Jamie Elmhirst's blog. I couldn't find it myself, but I found these other remarks that I found to be of some concern. Now, I've met Jamie and even had a beer with him at an LPCBC convention in my hometown of Penticton, BC. He seemed then to be a very nice guy, but comments such as the ones that follow are highly inappropriate for a person in his position. I'll explain why I feel that is the case after each quote.

"Jack Layton provided incontrovertible proof on the weekend that progressive voters in Canada can’t support the NDP and must vote Liberal."

This comment is in reference to Layton's willingness to work with a potential Harper Conservative minority. Layton hasn't changed much in terms of his overall agenda, it would seem, namely making Parliament work. He worked with the Liberals in the last session, and that was just fine for the Liberals, but now because he's demonstrating a willingness to work with the "other guys," he's evil. Let us also not forget the implications for Canadian democracy here. "Vote Liberal or else all your rights will vanish under scary Stephen Harper! He hates the Charter, you know!"

"On the other hand, it is obvious that Harper longs to play kissy-kissy with his ideological hero, George Bush."

Really? You actually said that? The last time I looked, Harper wasn't a homosexual and was indeed married with a couple of children. Again, too, with the invocation of ideology, as well as the always-popular-in-Canada Bush-bashing. This type of speech belongs in the sandbox, not something originating from the President of the Liberal Party of Canada in British Columbia.

On Child Care: "Harper Conservatives will desperately try and use this misstep to deflect attention away from their own crappy, ill thought out approach."

Do you really believe that this type of language is appropriate? Again, take it to the sandbox. He also expresses his "sympathy" for Scott Reid over the "beer and popcorn" statement, not for the viewpoint but because it's easy to say stupid things in front of a television camera. Apparently it's also easy to say them on a blog. As I said above, I've met Jamie before; I know that he's a relatively young guy, but saying that your opponent's ideas are "crappy" and that they want to "play kissy-kissy" with George Bush is ridiculous! He's a grown man, not an 8-year old playing with his buddies in the schoolyard! This is the type of stuff that led me to make the choice to leave the Liberals, and I hope that other people will see past the sham curtain that they have tried to erect in front of Stephen Harper to portray him as a scary-type who will systematically ruin our country. If they can do that and still find the Liberal platform to be superior to the Conservatives or the NDP or the Bloc or the Greens, that's totally respectable, but Liberals have demonstrated a clear lack of respect for Canadians during this campaign, and for that reason amongst many others it is time for them to be sent to the penalty box and spend a few years in opposition.