Memo to Paul Martin: Generosity is not a substitute for responsibility
Former prime minister Paul Martin is still a Liberal MP. You'd be forgiven if you had to look that up on Wikipedia in order to be certain, since he has left no record of his existence in parliamentary records.
Of all the MPs in parliament, Paul Martin has not voted once. Not even on votes that the Liberals did support.
But his response is what bothers me more.
Jack Layton and the NDP have been making hay over the Liberal Party's voting record, but have zeroed in on Paul Martin in particular, who alone has voted exactly zero times. Jack Layton thinks Paul Martin ought to resign:
New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton is calling on former prime minister Paul Martin to resign as a member of Parliament, saying residents of LaSalle-Émard deserve an MP who is going to actually show up in the House of Commons.
Layton's call came after a study of MPs' voting records by the Ottawa Citizen published last week revealed Martin had the worst voting record of the 308 MPs and hadn't voted once during the current session of Parliament. By comparison, Layton and Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe had voted 73 times, Prime Minister Stephen Harper 49 times and Stéphane Dion 33 times.
Paul Martin's office says the criticism is unfair:
However, Martin is defending his absence from the House, saying he is working hard on such important issues as poverty in Africa and the problems facing aboriginal Canadians.
Moreover, Martin is donating to First Nations charities the after-tax income from his $155,400 annual salary as MP for the southwest Montreal riding, his office argues.
OK, here is one of those classic defenses. Paul Martin does something nice, so he can't be criticized.
It's absurd.
The voters of LaSalle-Émard are paying for an MP. OK, we're all paying for all MPs, but you get the point. What Paul Martin does with the money is irrelevant. Giving it all to charities? Great. Spending it on hookers? Not such a good idea.
But either way, that's his business. And as his business, it's not directly connected to the work he's supposed to be doing to earn that money.
And it certainly does not shield him from questions concerning his effectiveness as an MP.
I don't have to represent my constituents because I take the money they give me to be their representative and give it to other people.
What the...?
As severe a case of the stupids as I've ever seen.
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