by Charles Adler
Originally published in Winnipeg Free Press
Sat 06 Aug 2005
ALLOW me to write the first piece of hate mail that this column will generate.
Mr Adler,
We know why you oppose Paul Martin’s choice for governor general: You just don’t have courage to admit that you are a short, fat, angry, middle-aged, anglophone, private-media white guy who cannot stomach the idea of an attractive, eloquent, black woman from the CBC who knows five languages getting ahead of you.
Signed,
Politically Correct Buffoon
If you are looking for guidance in how to respond to me, when I refuse to mouth the same nonsense that the prime minister and his toadies have offered up, that letter gives you an idea of what passes for acceptable Canadian dialogue in the post common-sense world that we find ourselves in.
Despite what you might hear from others about how complicated the decision is to pick a governor general, it is probably the easiest decision a truly confident non-poll-driven prime minister could ever make. The pick has to be someone who demonstrably, to virtually everyone’s satisfaction, has performed an important service for Canadians. The pick has to be someone that many million of Canadians would declare as an obviously good choice.
Every country, no matter how small has men and women who have that capacity. When you see the name of the new governor general on the front page of the Winnipeg Free Press, it should be someone who you immediately recognize and respect. If you see the name and ask your spouse or colleague the question, “Who the hell is that?” it means the prime minister has screwed up.
On the day of the announcement, a CJOB colleague of mine challenged me to tell him why Michaelle Jean was the new governor general. All I could say was that she fits the political criteria that the prime minister was looking for. She was a she. Women are much more likely than men to vote Liberal. The prime minister needs those votes coast to coast. He especially needs to do well in Toronto and Montreal. He desperately needs votes from the so-called New Canadians, the visible minority immigrants that make the difference between success and failure for Liberals in the key battleground, southern Ontario.
You may fairly ask the question: What do Paul Martin’s political challenges have to do with bestowing the highest honour in the land on a Canadian? You may ask the question: “Isn’t the office of governor general above politics?”
Adrienne Clarkson was asked to testify a while back to a parliamentary committee that wanted to ask her why she was spending money like a drunken dictator. And she bruised a lot of egos by saying: “My office is above politics.” It felt like hell to the commoners on the committee but it was true.
But while the office is apolitical the person who makes the pick has turned everything into a political position. Does anyone honestly think if someone like Rick Hansen or Marc Garneau had received the honour, that it would cost Paul Martin votes in Quebec or Ontario? Does anyone think that women would stop voting Liberal if the athlete or the astronaut were chosen? Of course not.
But you aren’t thinking like the people on the SS Minnow, a.k.a. the Prime Minister’s Office. They are looking for every opportunity they can seize. And Michaelle Jean, from their perspective, is a political home run. If the PM had simply picked someone who this country is extremely proud of, a household name who unifies Canadians coast to coast, Paul Martin would get no credit for it. It would be said that he was simply doing the expected, his duty to make a common-sense pick that needs no explanations, no prevarications, no spin. But look at the ground to be gained if you pick Michaelle Who.
You get Liberal toadies in the media calling the choice courageous, visionary, creative.
Down the road there will be an obvious choice for governor general who happens to be a member of a visible minority community. Maybe he or she is someone who rescued Canadians from a terrorist attack, or cured cancer. That person won’t be selected, because some spinner working for a prime minister 10 years from now will be saying, “No not this time. The Martin boys hired a black babe for Rideau Hall back in 2005. We don’t need a person of colour right now.”
Please do not blame Michaelle Jean for what has happened. She didn’t choose herself. The Right Honourable Paul Martin dishonoured the office of governor general by turning that puppy into pork.
Charles Adler is the host of Adler On Line weekday mornings on CJOB-68. The national edition of Adler On Line is heard at 2 p.m. on CJOB and Corus radio stations in many other Canadian cities. To contact Charles, log on to www.charlesadler.com
- Small-C conservatives in BC form new young conservatives group - Friday June 8, 2012 at 7:11 am
- Theo Caldwell’s new kids’ book: Open Book has Ten Questions for Theo Caldwell - Saturday October 17, 2009 at 1:48 pm
- Russian Stanislav Mishin: America descending into Marxism: “American Capitalism Gone With a Whimper” - Saturday May 30, 2009 at 9:22 am
