Where is Jason Nesmith when you need him?
The fictional commander of the fictional star ship Protector at least took a firm stand when delivering a stock line:
Never give up!
Never surrender!
Noob Bloc NDP member of parliament Ryan Cleary could only deliver a weak-assed line among a string of other superficial comments when he told CBC’s Debbie Cooper that in his new lifestyle as a politician, “there’s give and take, there’s compromise, but I’ll only compromise so far.”
Compromise on what, one might ask?
Clearly not spending public money.
Cleary promises to fly to his home in St. John’s every weekend.
Beyond that Cleary is not very clear on most things.
And why should he? The guy knew nothing about politics before he got into, nothing about the Commons and the role it plays and after four weeks of MP school he is barely scratching the surface of what he doesn’t know.
Heck, Cleary is stuck at the “it’s too hot up here, give me the ocean breeze and snow” kinda folksy bullshit that people haven’t heard in 60 odd years.
Folksy bullshit.
That and another piece of folksy bullshit in his royal commission to figure out what happened to all the fish. (Hint: Ask people - like Gus Etchegary - who helped slaughter them all).
Radio host Randy Simms asked him what process Cleary would use to get his beloved royal commission on the cod fishery going.
Process? Cleary asked, as Simms talked. You could practically see his head cocking to one side like the confused canine. After a couple of seconds he launched into a list of things that made it pretty obvious that Cleary had no idea what he needed to do in order to accomplish anything in Ottawa beyond the most basic stuff.
Cleary is clearly in way over his head. What’s worse, Cleary hasn’t realised he is in over his head. Instead he is ready with the pledge to follow all courses, wherever they may lead and blah blah and then blah blah some more until blah and blah.
Cue the folksy bullshit, again.
Being a member of parliament is not the greatest thing in the world but it is also not a great backwater where a guy can while away his days sending in “True Facts” submissions to National Lampoon like Dave Rooney used to do.
You can do a lot of good for people in Ottawa as a member of parliament. The kinds of people who write crap about Jackie Layton and spotting him a hundred seats never understand that because they are too wrapped up in themselves to appreciate how fundamentally ignorant they are.
Now that he’s on the other side, Cleary thinks MPs are put on pedestals, as he said a couple of times during interviews over the past 24 hours. That complete lack of insight into anything, including himself apparently, is a recipe for disaster for Cleary, his party and for his constituents. It’s why your humble e-scribbler offered the view that this guy could be a disaster waiting to happen. Four weeks later and nothing has changed.
Still, it’s early days.
Free advice is worth what you pay for it but here goes anyway: what Ryan should be doing is keeping his head down and his mouth shut. Spend the summer listening, asking questions and learning.
He’s got four years. If Cleary applies himself, he could turn out to be a half-decent member of parliament. He might get some good done along the way.
If he keeps going along his current path, he can join a litany of ex politicians who remain long after their careers are over where Ryan is today: on a quest of galactic proportions for relevance.
- srbp -