Inside Politics

Keddy vs. the "no-good bastards": All's well that ends well? (UPDATE: No.)

by Kady O'Malley Posted: November 24, 2009 1:28 PM Last Updated: November 24, 2009 2:00 PM
Aww, I love a happy ending: 

Conservative MP Gerald Keddy is apologizing for referring to some unemployed Haligonians as "no-good bastards."

Keddy, MP for the Nova Scotia riding of South Shore-St. Margaret's, issued a statement Tuesday saying he was sorry for the "insensitive comments."

"In no way did I mean to offend those who have lost their job due to the global recession, nor did I mean to suggest that anyone who is unemployed is not actively looking for employment," he said.

Keddy's office declined to comment further.

Why, it seems like only yesterday that Keddy was waxing outraged and defensive at a Halifax Chronicle-Herald reporter with the temerity to ask whether he had hired foreign labourers to work the lots on his Christmas tree farm: 

"Nova Scotians won't do it -- all those no-good bastards sitting on the sidewalk in Halifax that can't get work," Mr. Keddy said Monday.

He said if you want to "shut down the Annapolis Valley, and every market garden operation and all the apple industry, then don't bring in immigrant labour. We've got 20 Christmas tree growers using immigrant labour this year." [...]

"Why would the question be asked?" he said. "Why would it matter?" 


Oh wait, it was yesterday -- and for the record, the answer was apparently no, which made the impetus for his impromptu diatribe on the slackers of Halifax even more difficult to comprehend. Not surprisingly, it didn't take long for his remarks to make waves -- not just back home, but on the Hill as well. The NDP's Peter Stoffer told a local radio show that Keddy should tender his resignation -- not as MP, but as parliamentary secretary for international trade -- and it seemed all but certain that the opposition parties would call on the government to repudiate his comments during Question Period this afternoon. 

Will Keddy's apology be sufficiently humble and free of deftly worded qualification to mollify Stoffer et al? And, perhaps just as importantly, has he learned a valuable lesson about how to handle potentially awkward encounters with reporters, particularly when he has no reason not to simply answer the question? 

INSTAUPDATE: Well, I guess that's a no -- at least, as far as the distinctly unmollified Peter Stoffer is concerned. The Globe and Mail reports that the NDP MP is "unimpressed" with Keddy's attempt to smooth things over, and is holding out for that resignation after all.