Ruth Ellen Knows She's Made it When Sun Goes on the Attack

The latest round in the attacks on Ruth Ellen Brosseau, concern the fudging of her resume. Apparently she did not graduate from St. Lawrence college as noted, but left before completing the program.

The NDP is apologizing to their most famous MP-elect for "inadvertently" embellishing her resumé. The NDP's online biography of Ruth Ellen Brosseau, who won the Quebec riding of Berthier-Maskinongé without ever having set foot in it, says she "has a diploma in Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications from St. Lawrence College in Kingston." But the college says while she attended classes there, she didn't complete the course.

This was a lead story on our local news last night.

Not the Manitoba floods, the new law in Uganda that allows gays to be executed or the Conservatives trying to influence Supreme Court decisions.

But the fact that a new NDP MP, may have had her resume bolstered a bit. More fodder for the right-wing noise machine.

Jack Layton has got to step in here before the media gives this poor girl a nervous breakdown. He might suggest that they look at a few Conservative resumes.

John Weston claimed to be part of the diplomatic corp. It was later discovered that he took the course but was never accepted. David Sweet removed any mention of his involvement with the anti-women Promise Keepers. And Stephen Harper calls himself a trained economist, despite the fact that he has never worked a single day in the field.

Unless you count his job in the mail room at Esso, when he discussed the price of postage stamps.

And he completely left out the years he spent running the National Citizens Coalition.

Was I thrilled that she got the job and we lost so many hard working and progressive MPs? Of course not. And if names on her nomination were forged, then they are fraudulent, and a different issue.

But it appears to me as though the media is hounding this poor young woman, looking for anything and everything to discredit her. They should be ashamed.

They interviewed one of her former teachers at St. Lawrence last night, and she said that Brosseau was hard working, inquisitive and caring. All positive characteristics.

Layton needs to assign a veteran, someone like Libby Davies, to take the girl under their wing and under their protection. Start fighting back, or they will continue this kind of assault on all the young NDPers, unprepared for the new toxic climate of Canadian politics.