Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Steven Myers Should Apologize... "simple as that"

It didn't take long for the Tories to find another Jim Bagnall...

P.E.I. premier takes issue with ‘hate’ comment from Conservative victor
Tue, Oct 4, 2011, by Canadian Press CHARLOTTETOWN

Premier Robert Ghiz expressed shock Tuesday over comments made by a newly elected Conservative who said he won because the people in his district “hate” the province’s leader.

Ghiz said he’s afraid comments like that could set the tone for how politics will be played on the Island in the days and weeks ahead.

“If you want me to be brutally honest with you, I have never seen words like ‘disgrace’ and ‘hate’ used so freely,” he said.

“We’re Islanders. We respect one another. I respect the role of the opposition. I really hope that’s not the approach they are going to take. If they do, there is nothing I can do about it but it would be unfortunate.”

Ghiz said he was equally surprised when Tory Leader Olive Crane called him a disgrace during a televised leaders’ debate.

“I’ve never heard that language used, the same as I’ve never really heard of calling the leader of another political party a disgrace,” he said.

Steven Myers made the hate comment after winning in District 2, Georgetown-St. Peters.

“My win had more to do with the premier,” he said Monday night. “I was hearing at the door that people hate Robert Ghiz, and I believed them and they showed that tonight.”

Contacted Tuesday, Myers said he was just repeating what he was hearing at the doors.

“I’m not going to apologize for it,” said Myers. “It’s the truth. If his feelings are hurt over that, I guess he’ll have to live with it.”

Ghiz said if any of his members used language like that, he’d ask them to apologize.

He said he campaigned throughout eastern P.E.I. and always received a warm welcome from voters.

“A lot of the shenanigans that were going on during the election, I would never allow them to take place under my leadership,” he said.

The next big task for Ghiz will be selecting a cabinet and getting ready for the fall session of the legislature. The house needs to be called back within 30 days after declaration day to elect a Speaker.

Declaration day, or the day the election results are declared official, is Oct. 19.

Ghiz said he’ll announce his cabinet within two weeks. He lost two members of his inner circle Monday — Innovation Minister Allan Campbell and Fisheries Minister Neil LeClair.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well said Tim. I was also put off by Steven Myers "I'm here to fight" comment on compass. Maybe the PC Party can invest some funds to teach their members about Parliamentary language/behavior before this attitude poisons the legislature.

Ritchie Simpson said...

C'mon Tim, time to put it away until the next election. There's nothing to be gained blowing life into stories like this; there are no innocents.