Dumb Remark of the Day - 2008

[M.Dancer]

I did not say you could reach that level in 5 years. I said that you could be making $50,000 in 5 years. Then added that corporals, which is, I believe, the main enlisted rank, can reach $60-70,000, which is pretty darned good for someone with a high school education.

You are correct....

[Smallc]

So anyway, yes, we pay very well, and that's why our relatively large budget doesn't go all that far.

[AngusThermopyle]

which is pretty darned good for someone with a high school education.

As I mentioned earlier (you must have missed it), by the time they reach that level they have far more than a high school level education. As mentioned, at that level they posses training that exceeds many of their civilian counterparts. Hence the reason civilian companies head hunt military members.

That being the case their salaries are entirely reasonable.

Where we could save a great deal of money is the officer corps, we have a shit load more of them than we need.

[August1991]

Julie Couillard:

«C'est leur journée. Je vais en profiter pour les remercier de m'avoir donné l'opportunité [sic] de sortir mon livre», a-t-elle dit d'un ton laconique.

Canoe

Dumb on so many levels. Clark foolishly, stubbornly ignored Fabien Roy while Harper got it.

[M.Dancer]

Julie Couillard: Canoe

Dumb on so many levels. Clark foolishly, stubbornly ignored Fabien Roy while Harper got it.

I can translate that but I don't understand it.

[August1991]

John McCallum talking about Liberal campaign promises:

"The fact we've written it in the platform in black and white means we're serious," said Liberal MP John McCallum, a former bank economist who helped price his party's 2008 platform.

G & M

[August1991]

Michael Ignatieff when questioned about the source of criticsms of Dion's campaign:

“I am looking you in the eye and I am telling you a true statement,” he said from across a coffee table at a downtown hotel before heading to one of several engagements in his B.C. tour.

“I have absolutely no idea. Nobody associated with me. Nobody associated with my campaign.”

“I think that people should shut up, get back to work and try and win this election.”

G&M

This is a very dumb remark. I'm returning to my "Ignatieff is a flake" viewpoint. Ignatieff should say nothing, like Rae.

God help us if Ignatieff becomes PM. We'll have a PM staring us earnestly in the face in public and telling us one confused idea... and then he'll decide questions in private like Muammar Qaddafi. IOW, he'll be a flake.

Edited September 26, 2008 by August1991

[August1991]

Gilles Duceppe, when asked whether he'll run again:

« Je ne le sais pas, je ne peux pas décider d'avance. Je fais celle-là [la campagne électorale], je fais mon mandat, je n'ai jamais eu de plan de carrière [...]. » — Gilles Duceppe

"I never had a plan; it just happened". Translation: Duceppe is a typical urban boomer.

Then Harper's response:

Le chef conservateur n'a pas tardé à commenter, à sa manière, la déclaration de son rival souverainiste. « Quand on lui a demandé s'il sera présent après les élections, M. Duceppe a dit: "je ne le sais pas". Son nouveau slogan: Présent pour le Québec... peut-être. Incroyable! », a ironisé Stephen Harper.

RC Edited September 26, 2008 by August1991

[capricorn]

Michael Ignatieff when questioned about the source of criticsms of Dion's campaign:G&M

This is a very dumb remark. I'm returning to my "Ignatieff is a flake" viewpoint. Ignatieff should say nothing, like Rae.

Another Ignatieff jewel from your linked article.

“I don't think this election is a referendum on the Green Shift. It's a referendum on a related but different question. The question is, ‘Which team do you trust to lead you in tough economic times?'”

It's related but it's different?

[capricorn]

“Never has a government spent so much to destroy a person and his policies as Harper has towards me,” Mr. Dion said during a campaign event in Stoney Creek, Ont., just outside Hamilton.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...NStory/National

This statement really brings home the point that Dion lacks the mettle required in the political world. He is coming across as soft and whiny, especially in the last couple of days. If he continues in this vein into the debates, he'll do poorly.

[jdobbin]

This statement really brings home the point that Dion lacks the mettle required in the political world. He is coming across as soft and whiny, especially in the last couple of days. If he continues in this vein into the debates, he'll do poorly.

I don't know that anything will help. I am now thinking my 192 seat prediction for the Tories might be passed by a complete collapse of the Liberal party down to fourth place. I am now thinking 1 seat on the prairies, a very few in B.C., a crushing defeat in Ontario and Quebec and a rump of seats in the Atlantic provinces.

Dion will announce he is stepping down in a concession speech and the Liberal party will declare bankruptcy in the weeks and months that follow. I expect some Liberals will cross the floor to other parties or sit an independents. A few high profile Liberals will lose their seats. A leadership election will be nearly impossible for a bankrupt party. They might not even have the funds to fight a lawsuit. Harper can't get money if they go bankrupt though.

The question is whether the NDP or Greens will see Liberal voters swing over in a big way or whether many will move to the Tories and create a decades long dynasty for the Tories.

It is highly doubtful the Liberal party will exist in any significance in the next election or thereafter.

Edited September 27, 2008 by jdobbin

[capricorn]

Kinda leaves you up the creek about who you'll vote for, doesn't it dobbin. In your shoes, I'm not sure I'd bother voting at all.

[jdobbin]

Kinda leaves you up the creek about who you'll vote for, doesn't it dobbin. In your shoes, I'm not sure I'd bother voting at all.

In this election I have one of the higher profile candidates for the Liberals in the west. He is highly respected in agriculture and would have been welcomes in any party as far as I'm concerned. I'll vote for him but it would be a shock if he won considering where the polls are.

If I had no Liberal candidate, I'd have a hard time voting for another party unless they were mostly a centrist outfit or the candidate rose above the average. The NDP have not been that party and the Greens don't have strong candidates in my area or a sufficient platform for me to consider them. I won't jump to the Conservatives as I disagree on their stand on a host of issues from federalism to taxes. If there was no candidate, yes, I would probably not vote at all and just depart from political discourse like so many other Canadians have. Maybe they are the smart ones.

[capricorn]

dobbin, don't feel bad. In my riding (Ottawa-Vanier previously Ottawa-East) the Liberals have been in office since Confederation. That doesn't stop me from voting.

As for political discourse, I guess I'm one that will just keep yapping away.

[jdobbin]

dobbin, don't feel bad. In my riding (Ottawa-Vanier previously Ottawa-East) the Liberals have been in office since Confederation. That doesn't stop me from voting.

I'm sure a conservative candidate has run in your riding since Confederation as well. Most of my life I've had a PC or Conservative representative. Some of them were so right wing that even other conservatives rolled their eyes.

What I'm saying is that the Liberals might be so damaged that they don't run a candidate in my area next election.

As for political discourse, I guess I'm one that will just keep yapping away.

If the choice were limited to the parties I've mentioned, I don't know what I could say than none of the above.

[independent]

“Never has a government spent so much to destroy a person and his policies as Harper has towards me,” Mr. Dion said during a campaign event in Stoney Creek, Ont., just outside Hamilton.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...NStory/National

This statement really brings home the point that Dion lacks the mettle required in the political world. He is coming across as soft and whiny, especially in the last couple of days. If he continues in this vein into the debates, he'll do poorly.

You have been HARPERIZED you have to resort to personal attacks instead of talking about issues. Harpers adds had zero content and were just personal attacks on Dion. It his right to state the facts. It would be nice if Harper would start doing the same thing.

[August1991]

“Never has a government spent so much to destroy a person and his policies as Harper has towards me,” Mr. Dion said during a campaign event in Stoney Creek, Ont., just outside Hamilton.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...NStory/National

This statement really brings home the point that Dion lacks the mettle required in the political world. He is coming across as soft and whiny, especially in the last couple of days. If he continues in this vein into the debates, he'll do poorly.

That one's a doozy, Capricorn. Good catch.

I went back to see the context. I gather that Dion really meant that the Conservative Party (not the "government") has spent money to advertise Dion's flaws.

----

If Harper is a Leaside kid at heart, Dion is a kid from Sillery. I happen to know both neighbourhoods reasonably well. I thought Dion was the one who had left his background behind but it appears to be Harper that has grown more.

Pushed into a frustrating corner, Dion is resorting to being a Sillery kid. I thought he was smarter and more clever than that. In Quebec City, someone from Sillery can rely on their accent and demeanour to get them through any situation. Since Dion's mother was from France, he could impress even the likes of Bernard Landry or Louise Beaudoin.

In the broader world however (outside of Quebec City), a kid from Sillery has a tendency to sound whiny. I truly thought Dion was cosmopolitan and above that.

At this point and given his reactions, if Dion leads the Liberals to a disaster, I wouldn't be surprised if Dion returns to being pro-sovereigntist and blaming his defeat on English-Canada's bigotry of Quebecers. This would be in form for a kid from Sillery.

Incidentally, I only recall meeting Dion once, at the Liberal convention in Montreal. He was alone and my only thought is that he's not a natural politician. I though his aloofness would help him. I knew his father better. Like Claude Ryan, Leon Dion was a voice of reason through a confusing time in Quebec history.

Maybe Justin Trudeau is to Pierre Trudeau what Stephane Dion is to Leon Dion. Dunno.

Edited September 28, 2008 by August1991

[capricorn]

You have been HARPERIZED you have to resort to personal attacks instead of talking about issues.

This thread is about dumb things politicians say, not about issues and policies. If you can't see that it was a dumb thing for Dion to say at a campaign stop and surrounded by the media, then perhaps you are just as partisan as I am.

[capricorn]

That one's a doozy, Capricorn. Good catch.

I went back to see the context. I gather that Dion really meant that the Conservative Party (not the "government") has spent money to advertise Dion's flaws.

Dion's advisers took away his teleprompter as an experiment in the hopes he'd look more natural. Look for it to make a resurrection.

Maybe Justin Trudeau is to Pierre Trudeau what Stephane Dion is to Leon Dion. Dunno.

Oh boy. Justin should be quite a treat.