Canada's biggest set of 'huevos' belong to Bobby Rae

On Thursday night, people watching Mike Duffy’s programme on CTV NewsNet were treated to a great deal of righteous indignation from one Bob Rae.

At the best of times, I have a great deal of difficulty choking back the bile that builds at the back of my throat when this man speaks, but this man really does have quite the set of huevos to presume some moral high ground on the current situation.

When Duffy asked him whether or not he would back the government if elements of the Coalition’s manifesto were reflected in the budget, he displayed his typical open-mindedness and said no. Duffy gave the example of cutting the two week waiting period for those needing to claim Employment Insurance. Of course, Mike made the innocent mistake of saying that many would view this as a ‘gift’.

Rae, clearly in a feisty mood, switches his anger from the Prime Minister to Duffy, hectoring him on the insensitivity of labelling such a thing as a gift. Did Duffy not understand that these are real people who are suffering?

Nice display, Bob, but I entered the work force about the same time you became Premier of Ontario. I know what kind of highly indebted soup-kitchen economy you created, and I know how many once-thriving businesses ended up going underwater. Indeed, my father-in-law’s business was a victim of your useless half-backed schemes, and I am sure that you would not want to be going door-to-door canvassing on his street – especially during Christmas dinner when he is wielding the carving knife.

I lost 3 to 4 years of my working career, but I was the rule, not the exception – which is sad to say.

Personally, Mr. Rae, I think your grubby little paws are all over this Coalition scheme, and that Monsieur Dion was gullible enough to front it for you.

Consider the evidence.

The last time a federal Conservative government was brought down in this manner was the Clark government in 1980. Does anyone remember the name of the NDP Member of Parliament that moved the Non-Confidence motion? Yep, Bob Rae.

And what did we get? A return of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the dreaded NEP, and deficit spending that was so profligate that it took all of the Mulroney, Campbell, and Chretien governments time in office to get it under control.

Then, in 1985, Ontario Premier Frank Miller, just after having won a minority government, gets taken out by Liberal leader David Peterson, under an agreement signed with Ontario NDP Leader….wait for it….Bob Rae.

And what did we get from that arrangement? The incompetence of the Peterson government was followed by the even more pathetic Rae administration that, in one budget, increased Ontario’s debt load by more than all previous governments since 1867 combined – a government that gave young people the kind of Depression-era economy that at least they had something to talk to their grandparents about.

Such a dire situation required medicine so bitter, that today, it is not Bob Rae who gets vilified by many memory-deficient Ontarians, but his predecessor, Mike Harris – the guy who swept up all the beer bottles and declared ‘last call’ after Rae’s gang trashed the joint.

So, now – today – it seems that Bob Rae is trying for a Hat Trick, but in what, is the real question.

Is it a Hat Trick in brining down Conservative governments? Maybe, and if that is the case, then he suffers from some pathological neurosis that I am not familiar with. I suppose that he may just simply move to a province with a Tory government, establish himself long enough to get elected to their legislature, then try to bring the Premier down. Twice in Ottawa, and once in Ontario – maybe Ed Stelmach should be wary.

Then again, maybe he wants to destroy the free market capitalist system. Well, he opened the door for Trudeau to ramp up the debt between 1980 and 1984, and he put it on life support in Ontario between 1990 and 1994 – who knows?

Maybe he’s a New Democrat in Liberal clothing. I know he quit his old party, but he seems pretty wedded to this pact with Jack Layton, so maybe Liberals should be looking a little more closely.

In any event, Bob Rae is the last human being in Canada that can claim the moral high ground, whether it be democracy, or the economy.

Taking lessons on either one from him would be akin to taking sobriety lessons from a raging alcoholic.

Sounds harsh, but you see, I’m not the gentleman that Mike Duffy is.

I see your Johnson, and raise you a Dickens...

The 3 Stooges, and their surrogates, throw out the oft-used quotation by the learned Samuel Johnson, that "Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels."

They argue that due to 26% plus 18% plus 10% plus 6% of Canadians who scattered their vote among the 4 platforms, the law allows them the right to conveniently gloss over the internal distinctions, and rule as a unified front.

Indeed, it does, and not withstanding the prorogation, they may still legally get their chance at the end of January.

To this end, might I offer another quote - this from the character Mr. Bumble from Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist" :

"If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass- a idiot. If that's the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience- by experience."

We can only hope so much...