EXCERPT FROM GLOBE & MAIL: ‘Conservative cabinet minister Peter Kent has reversed course and fallen back into line behind Stephen Harper after criticizing his own party for recruiting a candidate with apparent Tamil Tiger sympathies.
“I regret any embarrassment that my remarks may have caused the Prime Minister,” Mr. Kent said in a statement sent to The Globe and Mail after Mr. Harper defended the candidate, Gavan Paranchothy, during a weekend campaign stop in Mississauga, Ont…
In a Globe and Mail interview last Thursday, Mr. Kent was blunt in decrying as “outrageous” a television program that Mr. Paranchothy played host to last November, which honoured Tamil Tiger “heroes” and “freedom fighters” killed in the militant group’s separatist war in Sri Lanka. The Conservatives listed the Tigers, who relied on a large Canadian support base for funding, as a terrorist group in 2006.
“It was a tribute and it’s unacceptable even if he didn’t write it, even if he didn’t believe it,” Mr. Kent said in the initial Globe interview, adding that his party “obviously dropped the ball” when it cleared Mr. Paranchothy to run in Toronto’s Scarborough-Southwest riding.’
Peter Kent was brave for speaking his mind initially, but he’s no doubt paid the price of free judgment and personal expression in Harper nation. What a backdown! How humiliating!
As we battle it out for anti-Conservative votes with the NDP, let’s not forget who our real opponent is in this election. Stephen Harper must be removed from office as soon as possible.
