Politics, Don Jamieson once said, is no place for fools.
But you don’t have to be a fool to expect that people act with basic human decency.
Definitely not acting with such decency are the number of people over the course of Monday who spent very little time discussing Yvonne Jones and her health problems and a great deal of time picking through her political entrails to find a successor.
From the Tory low-lifes on radio call-in shows with their unfounded hints of backroom skulduggery to the local blogger who started and ended the day listing off as many people as he could as potential replacements, each represents the very worst of what local politics has become in the last seven years.
Sadly the days ahead will likely bring more of the same as partisan operatives from all three parties seek to make the greatest political gain from someone else’s misfortune. Only the most brazen will do it openly. Most of them will whisper or make anonymous comments online.
If you think all three parties don’t have these sorts of bottom feeders, consider that there is at least one scumbag who fed David Cochrane the name of one potential replacement such that it would get a mention on the main Here and Now broadcast.
The name had to come from someone or several people close enough to the party’s inner workings - and the named supposed candidate himself - that Cochrane could report it with such confidence.
There is a particular place in hell for people so devoid of scruples or having such poor judgment.
Late on Monday evening, word is Yvonne Jones will hold a news conference and tell the rest of us what is happening. After that the party’s executive board will meet to figure out where the party goes from here.
No matter what the executive board decides , let us hope that the next leader can change the tone of politics away from the miserable place it has been for the past seven years.
We do not need more of the sort of callousness some have displayed already.
- srbp -
Scumbucket Example A:
From the first comment posted at 1131 PM on a CBC online story Monday night posted at 1117 PM:
The Liberals were in trouble come October anyways....now they are REALLY in trouble. I suspect the Liberals will be wiped off the political map on Oct 11th. NDP will pick up a few seats and become the official opposition....but in the end it will be life as normal...a solid responsible PC govt...something that we have all gotten to know over the past 8 years....
With all that being said, I wish Ms. Jones a healthy retirement...she's earned it.
It had 16 thumbs up votes by other readers by 12:15 AM. It was posted by someone who called himself or herself “holeinthebucket”.