Canada's PM Blasphemes

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-2003
Canada's PM Blasphemes
6
Sat, 09-18-2004 - 8:49am
I'm wondering what you all think of this news story.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14365114.htm

Canada PM scolded by aunt, apologizes for blasphemy



14 Sep 2004 16:52:47 GMT

Source: Reuters



OTTAWA, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin apologized on Tuesday for blasphemy during a nationally televised meeting on health care reform -- but only after his aunt told him that his mouth should be washed out with soap.

Martin, sitting at a table with the heads of the country's 10 provinces, could clearly be heard muttering "Jesus Christ!" after a presentation by Manitoba premier Gary Doer.

An embarrassed prime minister opened the second session of the meeting by apologizing profusely, saying he had in fact been reacting to a note passed to him by a member of staff.

"I have two aunts .... and during the break one of my aunts called me and essentially pointed out that I had used inappropriate language and suggested a bar of soap," he said.

"I also want to apologize to anybody who might have taken offense at what I said, I most sincerely do, and I apologize to my aunt," he added, stressing again that he had been commenting on the contents of the note and not to what Doer had said.

To laughter, Doer replied: "Hopefully the note from your federal officials said 'He's right' and that's why you were swearing."



--------------------

Also check out Canada's Primary news source, CBC, which covers the swear only as a small part of the larger issue, the summit for heath care.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/09/14/summit_tues040914.html

PM, premiers spar over length of funding

Last Updated Tue, 14 Sep 2004 14:13:47 EDT

OTTAWA - Tempers flared Tuesday over Ottawa's offer of short-term funding to address long waiting times for some medical procedures – a problem that some of the premiers tracked back to Paul Martin's term as finance minister in the mid-1990s.

"We cannot fix health care for a generation without funding for a generation," Manitoba's Gary Doer insisted at the national health-care summit in Ottawa.

That comment prompted one of the people around the table to exclaim "Jesus Christ!" in a disgusted tone into a microphone.

Cameras were covering Doer at the time, so the source of the comment could not be immediately identified.

However, the Prime Minister's Office later acknowledged that Martin had uttered the phrase, while reading a note that had just been handed to him. Martin later apologized to the premiers and said he was not reacting to Doer when he used the "inappropriate" language.

The prime minister defended both his past decisions as finance minister as well as his current proposal to provide $4 billion in short-term funding to address waiting times on top of extra long-term funding for the provinces.

"If we had not acted in 1995, we would not be here today," Martin said, after repeated references to how cuts in transfer payments that year pushed the provinces into a funding crunch that led to the current crisis.

"We would not be in the position to offer the kinds of money we are offering today. In 1995, 35 cents of every dollar that we spent on health care was borrowed...

"I believe that what we did in 1995 is the reason why our economy is one of the strongest in the world today."

New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord used a polite tone to comment on that contention.

"With all due respect," he said to Martin, "when you put your energy and your focus and your determination to break the back of the deficit, you did it for a generation, not for five years."

Jean Charest of Quebec hammered home his belief that Ottawa should provide more money without attaching targets that provinces must meet.

He said attaching funding to statistical targets disregards the fact that 13 different provincial and territorial jurisdictions have very different populations and priorities, and interferes with an area that constitutionally is under provincial control.

"There is a danger that the federal priorities may distort significantly Quebec's health network," he said. "We may come up with something that won't work."

Martin replied that he intends to let the provinces set their own targets for reducing waiting lists.

With regard to the short-term nature of the money to reduce waiting times, Charest said: "I don't want to have to explain to someone who's had their left cataract done that they can't have the right one done because the federal funding has ended."

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams spoke of a "perfect storm" of conditions that will increase the demand for surgical and diagnostic procedures just as the proposed funding is winding down.

Those factors included the aging population of both patients and doctors, physicians who no longer want to work exhausting hours, and escalating disease rates.

Williams said those conditions will only add to the stresses in Newfoundland and Labrador, where 1,906 people are on the waiting list for one MRI machine, and it can take up to nine months to have a routine mammogram read for signs of breast tumours.

Martin insists that his short-term funding should be used to invest in infrastructure such as computer systems to collect information, streamline lists and "break the back" of the problem. "You're not going to have to clear the backlogs every year," he said.

But premiers like Doer said more medical staff, not more machines, are needed to reduce waiting times substantially.

"I can't hire a cardiac surgeon on a short-term, break-the-back strategy," Doer said.

Saskatchewan's Lorne Calvert agreed on that point.

"We can't imagine, or draw with a pencil, an MRI without a technician," he said, referring to one of the most effective types of diagnostic tests. "There's no use of having an extra surgical suite unless you have the surgeon and the nurses and the technicians and the after-surgery care."


Written by CBC News Online staff

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Sat, 09-18-2004 - 12:45pm

Welcome to In the News!


iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-2003
Sat, 09-18-2004 - 1:29pm
Well, a lot of people would consider the phrase a profanity. However, it passed without many people noticing, and I don't think anyone was offended (with the exception of his aunt!). I'm interested to know how Americans would have reacted had it been George W. Bush who made the remark. I think it would have been a much bigger deal south of the border than it was here (in Canada).
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Sat, 09-18-2004 - 2:13pm




I'm interested to know how Americans would have reacted had it been George W. Bush who made the remark. I think it would have been a much bigger deal south of the border than it was here (in Canada).


I think it might have made an impact on two groups...the truly conservative Fundamentalist Christians would have undoubtedly been upset - however, I don't know if they'd have made a big deal about it because he's their candidate.


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Sat, 09-18-2004 - 3:59pm

I think it's quaint that his aunt was offended. My mother would have been too.


If someone used it on a regular basis I would not like it. The odd slip of the tongue, no big deal.


He could have said he was praying out loud. ;)

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

Avatar for papparic
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Mon, 09-20-2004 - 6:34am
"He could have said he was praying out loud. ;)" Now that would have been a true profanity, trying to disguise the use of JC's name by calling it a prayer.

Our PM's in Canada tend to say what's comes to mind and worry less about how people will react. They don't look for a spin, at least not anywhere near what happens in the US. That's why we have had a PM who gave the finger to reporters, another who grabbed a strangle hold around the neck of a reporter and the minister to one of the PM's who called Bush a moron. (Then the PM repeated the word moron three times in his statement that he didn't think Bush was a moron)

Your upcoming election is a real exercise in spin. Both candidates try so desperately to stay middle of the road that they agree with each other more than differ. Bush is afraid to open his mouth because it will come out confused and incorrect and Kerry has no opinion at all. Truly, an election of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.

We Canadians are rather proud that our leaders have some rough edges.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 09-20-2004 - 8:30am

The praying comment was a joke, note the wink, ;).


"Kerry has no opinion at all."


That's not quite true. He has opinions but the press in the US appears to love the negative spin about Kerry

 


Photobucket&nbs