I'm sure the boys will have a good laugh over this, since their hi jinx over H1N1 is getting stale. But Lisa Raitt, who is currently involved in no less than six ethics investigations, was the subject of a letter written by a man three months before his death.
Will she care? Not likely.
London Free Press
November 15, 2009
Letter to Lisa Raitt
My dearest Minister, There is nothing I would like more than to give you the benefice du doute. However, the private conversation recently made public about the isotope shortage speaks for itself and shows you in a completely different light. As a lifetime liberal and then some, there is nothing I like more than the Conservative soap-opera you and your cronies are putting on for everyone to see, but there are limits.
It has indeed become disgraceful, and you, yes you, have put self-interest before those of the Country. It goes without saying that Tories left to their own devices will normally self-destruct and that they are better suited for the Opposition than for Government, but the Liberals needed a time-out and to regroup.
Alas, I now live in a riding where a Westhighland White Terrier painted blue would win hands down under the Conservative banner (with the greatest deference of course to Mr. MacKenzie, Member of Parliament for Oxford).
I realize that many politicians are very stubborn, hating to be wrong and hating to admit error. Your leader provides us with un exemple par excellence. I have been accused of such myself from time to time and do try to take somewhat of a humanist approach to matters political. We do live in the real world.
Sadly, it is rare to find a selfless politician, one with her or his constituents' interests really at heart, hence the very low opinion of public officials, as demonstrated in recent studies. We are not naifs, are we? Will you eat humble pie? Probably not. The more intriguing question is, "Are you sadistic or just plain stupid?"
Even as a frank conversation far from prying ears, it was and remains totally inappropriate. I know I have already lost you but shall continue anyway for my own edification. Minister, have you ever faced a life-threatening illness or watched those you love being destroyed by one? It is far from 'sexy,' and I am not being melodramatic: my beloved mum has been given to November to live. I have been spared death but not a life without suffering.
I will not cry you a river, but since you are only in the game for fame and glory, could you please tell Mum (whose name is G. "Judeen" Grace Smith-Layman) what you are doing to solve this isotope crisis? What is your overall plan? Put differently, what are you doing to help people like her (thus enabling you to get the praise you so desperately yearn for, which is most important of course)?
What has happened to ministerial responsibility and cabinet solidarity? Are you normally a cut-throat back stabber? Mum, like many others in the same boat, relies on a wide range of diagnostic imaging, and because of your handling of the dossier, she may go without. I do not need a cassette tape to know that you saw the storm coming but did not put up the shutters.
Shame! Shame! Shame! If you like to gamble, please do so at the casinos, and not with the lives of fellow Canadians. If you like theatre, Madam, may I suggest Stratford and not making Parliament Hill a very sad and sorry spectacle? Maybe we all could learn from the legislative assemblies of the North and from the First Nations. If it is your desire to climb the greasy poll all the way to 24 Sussex Drive, however unrealistic such is, especially now, so be it, but you are wholly responsible for the untimely death of thousands of people worldwide, and quite frankly, I do not know how you can sleep at night.
Perhaps you sold-out long ago, Minister; you even let your administrative assistant take the fall for you, but what is it that they say? Yes, pride comes before the fall. You conservatives always like to pretend you are morally superior to the rest of us. Maybe that is why I am so indignant. I realize we are all sinners, but how can you call yourself a Christian? And for the record, you are not half the woman the honourable Minister of Health is.
Posted By: Michael F. Layman, CdFP, B.A. (Hons.), LL.B., Tillsonburg Posted On: June 10, 2009
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