Angry in the Great White North

Kady O'Malley's piece in Macleans created quite a stir in Canada's left-of-centre blogosphere:

It started over the weekend with a single post from "Northern BC Dipper," a self-described "proud New Democrat" in northern British Columbia.

"Most of the time I don't like to blame party staff for party setbacks, but I've gotten to the conclusion that Brad Lavigne, Director of Communications for the NDP, should be fired," he began. The blogger then proceeded to blame Lavigne for what he saw as a series of media misjudgements on everything from the party's position on Afghanistan to its treatment of newly elected Liberal Leader Stephane Dion.

Over at Le Revue Gauche, blogger Eugene Plawiuk claimed that he has done a better job of getting out the party's position on Afghanistan than Lavigne. "Lavigne has missed defining the mission in debates with his Conservative and Liberal counterparts," Plawiuk wrote. "And the NDP really blew it with ther messaging on Dion on Afghanistan. Instead they engaged in cheap shots one expects from the Western Standard."

Does Plawiuk come off as a bit arrogant, or a lot arrogant? This is how he describes himself:

A freelance writer, investigative researcher,heresiologist, labour/social/masonic historian, activist, unabashed left-winger and heathen ("but not an unenlightened one").

What about, well, um, blogger?

He complains about cheaps shots from the Western Standard without giving examples. I prefer examples. Here's a few, but not from the Western Standard. They come from Plawiuk's blog. Like calling Foreign Minister Peter MacKay a pedophile?

So Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay has made another of the governments surprise visits to Afghanistan.

Being a single guy I wonder if he was looking for a child bride.

Really? Was that what you were wondering? I didn't think that at all. But my skills as an "investigative researcher" aren't as honed as Plawiuk's.

Plawiuk was using this cheap shot as a way of directing readers to this story about Afghan girls being sold as young brides. It is a terrible situation, but to call Peter MacKay a pedophile does nothing to move the story forward.

If someone from the NDP benches had said that in the House of Commons, the uproar would have brought down the roof. So why would the same politicians allow their message to be carried by the likes of McClelland and Plawiuk?

It's too bad. This is an important story. But arrogant hypocrites like Plawiuk cannot be trusted to deliver a story like that without tainting it with their own puerile attempts at humour. Certainly the NDP doesn't seem to trust them.

Like I suggested earlier, this isn't an isolated incident. Plawiuk used pictures of Chretien's face, afflicted by Bell's Palsy, to illustrate a story about the first face transplant, or this one in which he aims a cheap shot at Warren Kinsella, and then admits it was a cheap shot in the comments.

No serious political party or individual politician would dare use Plawiuk as a means of delivering their message.