Another Tory

[Smallc]

In this case, yes.

Optics and nothing more.

In your opinion, of course.

[Dave_ON]

This is a rather difficult topic to address. Was the intent behind the remarks racist? Who can really say, I somehow doubt they were and this was a matter of PP’s brain not being fully engaged. From what I’ve seen pragmatism and tact are severely lacking in the CPC so his comments come as no surprise.

I’m quite divided on this issue, because while I believe that government officials should not be intentionally offensive, at the same time we shouldn’t be overly sensitive on such matters. Don’t make a mountain from a mole hill as it were. The fact of the matter is whether the term has several meanings or not, because of the big deal that has been made about it, the politically expedient thing to do would be to apologize.

It truly is a sticky issue as with any language the meaning and context of words are constantly in flux. A prime example of this is the phrase “I got gyped”. This is an allusion to buying wares from travelling gypsies that were of dubious quality. Now most people don’t get to upset about it these days as gypsies are few and far between. However, regardless of the origin of the word it has come to mean something vastly different than the original disparaging pejorative term. Most people don’t even realize it’s origin at this point and could hardly be accused of holding gypsies in contempt.

I think this particular incident is not as cut and dry as we would like to make it. While the term used certainly has a pejorative origin it has come to mean something else. In this case it’s the stickiness of tar that is being referred to rather than its colour. By the same token however, if PP had mentioned that the carbon tax was “a gay idea” or that the LPC was trying to “Jew the public” I don’t think that would have been quite so ambiguous.