INDEPTH: CANADIAN GOVERNMENT
Political insults: a short history of personal attacks
CBC News Online | October 20, 2006
 House of Commons
During a debate on Oct. 19, 2006, over the Conservative government's proposed clean air act — which was being criticized for not being tough enough on polluters and for abandoning the Kyoto Protocol — Liberal MP David McGuinty asked Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, "Don't you care about your dog?"
Liberals allege that MacKay pointed toward the vacant seat of Liberal MP Belinda Stronach, whom MacKay dated when she was a Conservative, and said, "You already have her."
MacKay later denied making the remark.
The previous Parliament featured its fair share of personal attacks, too.
During the Nov. 24, 2005, session of question period, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper referred to the Liberals as a "party that has been named in a judicial inquiry, a royal commission, been found guilty of breaking every conceivable law in the province of Quebec with the help of organized crime."
Then prime minister Paul Martin took exception to Harper's reference to organized crime and asked for a retraction.
Meanwhile, Joe Volpe, then immigration minister, took a chance to respond by pointing out his Conservative counterpart's spending habits:
"My critic opposite for example, [has spent] $106,000 [on travel]. I wonder, when he gets on a plane if he takes a champagne shower and asks for caviar?"
And how did John Reynolds respond?
"Mr. Volpe is a sleazebag."
Canadian politicians have been engaging in a piece of political theatre called "question period" since the country was born. It's a 45-minute period of time in the House of Commons when members of Parliament engage in often rowdy debate and, sometimes, name-calling.
Question period – 2:15 p.m. Eastern Time Monday to Thursday and 11:15 a.m. Fridays – is designed to make sure the government is accountable to the people, so MPs get a chance to ask the government questions.
The decorum of the House is maintained by the Speaker, but over the years its fractious nature has exploded, resulting in personal insults being flung across the floor.
Question period used to be a staid affair. Back in May 1971, former prime minister John Diefenbaker complained: "The quality of debate in the House is deplorable. You watch today and count how many read from prepared texts."
 Ed Broadbent (CP File Photo)
Question period was not broadcast on television until 1977 and some critics say that was the start of its slide into personal attacks.
MPs may consider taking advice from an inscription pasted inside former prime minister Pierre Trudeau's daily briefing book: "O Lord, help my words to be gracious and tender today – tomorrow I may have to eat them."
Here is a brief compendium of rude comments made by Canadian politicians to each other over the years:
"I get sick ... not because of drink [but because] I am forced to listen to the ranting of my honourable opponent."
– During the election of 1863, Sir John A. Macdonald threw up during a campaign speech and when his opponent pointed this out, Macdonald shot back with this answer.
"Sir Wilfrid is too English to me."
– Sir Charles Tupper, prime minister for two months in 1896, after defeating Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
"The finest woman ever to walk the streets of Kingston."
– Former PM John Diefenbaker on fellow Conservative Flora MacDonald after having a falling out with her.
"There, but for the grace of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, sits God,"
NDP Leader David Lewis in 1969 during a House debate.
 Pierre Trudeau, Nov. 8, 1993 (CP Photo)
– What then PM Pierre Trudeau claims he said instead of "F*** off" in the House of Commons to Tory John Lundrigan, member for Gander-Twillingate in Feb. 16, 1971, when pressured to deal with unemployment. Members of the press gallery say they observed Trudeau mouthing the swear.
"The honourable member from Snakeville."
During the mid-1980s, Ray Hnatyshyn, minister of justice and attorney general of Canada in Brian Mulroney's government, repeatedly used that name to refer to Liberal MP John Nunziata. Nunziata was part of the "Rat Pack," along with Sheila Copps and Don Boudria, who pummelled the Tories with attacks during question period.
"The Hon. leader of the Opposition knows all about butts. He has had his hands on more butts than there are members of this House."
– Transport Minister John Crosbie in November 1987 to Liberal Leader John Turner. Crosbie is referring to Turner's 1984 election campaign gaffe on TV when he was caught slapping Liberal MP's Iona Campagnolo's bum.
 Brian Mulroney in the House of Commons, June 20, 1990. (CP Photo/Chuck Mitchell)
– What Prime Minister Brian Mulroney allegedly called Winnipeg Liberal MP David Walker Dec. 11, 1991, during an attack by Walker on the government's child-poverty record. Opposition MPs and a Canadian Press photographer in the Commons say they clearly heard Mulroney utter the phrase.
"Pass the tequila, Sheila, lay down and love me again."
– John Crosbie, minister for international trade, at a fundraising dinner in Victoria about Liberal Opposition MP Sheila Copps in February 1990.
"It is better to be sincere in one language than to be a twit in two,"
Crosbie said in 1983 about former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.
"Slut."
– What Tory backbencher William Kempling called Sheila Copps in 1991.
"Sambo."
– What another Tory MP, Jack Shields, called NDP MP Howard McCurdy, the only black member in the House of Commons, in 1991.
"Sheila, that a was a shitty thing to do and confirms you are one bitch."
– Ian McClelland, Reform MP for Edmonton Southwest, to Sheila Copps during a debate in April 1997.
"I hear the word 'racist' from that side. Do you have the fortitude or the gonads to stand up and come across here and say that to me, you son of a bitch? Come on."
– Reform MP Darrell Stinson rolling up his sleeves Feb. 4, 1997, during question period, challenging Liberal MP John Cannis to a fight.
"Little chubby little sucker."
– What Stinson called Progressive Conservative Leader Jean Charest after Charest accused him of being a bigot, Dec. 4, 1997.
On May 8, 1997, a Bloc Québécois MP hums the first song from the soundtrack of the mobster movie The Godfather while Public Works Minister Alfonso Gagliano, originally from Sicily, answers a question on patronage in the House.
"He acts like a parliamentary busboy that takes the scraps from the cabinet table and throws them into the parliamentary kitchen after they've been digested."
– Reform Leader Preston Manning in September 1999 in reference to government House leader Don Boudria, who began his career as a busboy in the Parliamentary Restaurant.
"Frankly, if I was going to recruit somebody, I'd go further up the gene pool."
– Liberal cabinet minister Reg Alcock when asked by reporters on May 4, 2005, whether he offered an ambassadorship to Tory MP Inky Mark in return for Mark giving up his seat in the House of Commons, thus making the Liberals' minority government a little more secure.
SOURCE: The Oxford Book of Canadian Political Anecdotes (1988 Oxford University Press) Ed. Jack McLeod.
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