Susan Delacourt writes today in the Toronto Star of a display of astonishing arrogance among liberals.
Party slow to learn lesson in humility
Victory dance comes too soon
Liberals boogie to mark budget voteOTTAWA—Partying Liberals were treated Thursday night to the incredible sight of Belinda Stronach, Canada’s new human resources minister, and Tim Murphy, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, dancing atop a speaker at an Ottawa bar.
The tune? “Material Girl,” by Madonna.
The lyrics to that song include these memorable, and some would say fitting, words:
“Some boys kiss me, some boys hug me, I think they’re OK,
If they don’t give me proper credit, I just walk away.
They can beg and they can plead,
But they can’t see the light. That’s right,
‘Cause the boy with the cold hard cash is always Mr. Right.”
Stronach, of course, was not promised cash in exchange for her spectacular defection from the Conservative benches this week. And it could be argued that she had to move left, politically, to find Mr. Right.
But as an image, the scene of Murphy and Stronach dancing — only hours after the Liberals survived a squeaker of a confidence vote in the Commons — fed into the perception that Prime Minister Paul Martin and his team somehow pulled off a momentous victory this week.
BlackBerries were buzzing all over Ottawa bars on Thursday night with descriptions of the dancing scene. Some Liberals, especially the younger ones, were dazzled. Others, more seasoned, fretted that the display was just more proof that Martin’s Liberal government thrives solely on adrenalin, celebrity and power for its own sake.
It’s true, the image didn’t quite jibe with the tone that Martin had tried to find in his speech to Liberal MPs immediately after the Commons speaker broke the 152-152 tie on defeating the budget and the government.
In that speech, Martin talked about how Liberals needed to seek renewed confidence from Canadians and get to work. “Tomorrow …,” he added after a pause, perhaps contemplating that Murphy, Stronach and the hordes headed to Suite 34 in the Byward Market might want to pretend for an evening that bare survival is the same as triumph. […]
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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