Angry in the Great White North

Liberal blogger demands Stephane Dion denounce Jamie Carroll's Chinese crack

We hear from Liberal sources that at a meeting with Quebec Liberals in the aftermath of the Outremount by-election loss, Jamie Carroll responded to demands that more Quebecers be included in Stephane Dion's inner circle. Jamie Carroll is the Liberal Party's National Director and a close supporter and advisor of Liberal Stephane Dion.

Jamie Carroll's response: If I hire more Quebecers, will I also have to hire more Chinese?

A Liberal blogger has had enough and wants Stephane Dion to slap Jamie Carroll down.

Meanwhile I am amazed at just how eager Quebec Liberals are to make sure that any misstep by Stephane Dion or his inner circle is made known to the press.

Update #1: The president of the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party of Canada, Robert Fragasso, is demanding that Jamie Carroll remove himself as national director.

Update #2: Massive Liberal infighting goes public.

Stephane Dion's Douglas Jung gaffe reported in the English-language press

The Hill Times, the weekly covering politics and government, is reporting on the efforts expended by both the Liberals and the Conservatives in courting the vote in different ethnic communities. While the Conservatives are able to point to action like redressing the Chinese head tax, the Liberals are struggling to put the Douglas Jung gaffe behind them, as suggested by the amount of focus Stephane Dion's mistake in front of the Chinese-Canadian Liberal Association was given in this article.

Stephane Dion's apology for the Douglas Jung gaffe

When Stephane Dion addressed the Chinese Canadian Liberal Association, he spoke to the contributions of Chinese Canadians. He spoke in particular about Arthur Lee, whom he identified as Canada's first MP of Chinese descent. Lee was elected as a Liberal MP in 1974 in Pierre Trudeau's government.

The problem, of course, is that this was utterly wrong. Douglas Jung, a Chinese-Canadian, was elected in 1957 to sit as an MP in John Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservative government.

None of this is difficult to find out.

Now the Sing Tao Daily, Canada's largest circulation Chinese language newspaper, has reported on this gaffe. The article ran in the Toronto and Vancouver editions. I've got an English translation of the article, approved by the author, and I've been given permission to reprint it in its entirety.

Even the bit about Jason Cherniak.

If Stephane Dion can't say it in French, who can?

A little gem from the video of Stephane Dion addressing the Chinese Canadian Liberal Assocation is how Stephane Dion struggled with the French translation of the name of the group, and listening to someone's comment on Dion's fumbling in French get picked up by the camera microphone.

Stephane Dion doesn't need this sort of help

Once again, Steve Janke of Angry in the Great White North got the facts wrong.

Now read the post. Then come back. I have three observations to make:

1. Anyone can make a mistake in research. But it's fun to watch Liberals do it. They admit to being mistaken about the "fact" that was central to their argument, and then say "none of it matters".
2. If I was Stephane Dion, I'd ask Jason Cherniak to stop helping.
3. As for Jason's closing point on apologies, he just shows what a class act he is.

That's it.

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Liberal blogger says no apology necessary for ignoring Douglas Jung, because Jung wasn't a Liberal

According to this Liberal blogger, Stephane Dion's gaffe at the Chinese Canadian Liberal Association dinner when he said that Liberal Arthur Lee was the first Chinese Canadian member of parliament, elected in 1974, is not really a mistake at all. The first MP was really Douglas Jung in 1957, but since Jung was a Conservative, and since Stephane Dion was speaking to a roomful of Liberals, it was understood that the only MPs that count are Liberal MPs.

Stephane Dion reaches out to Chinese Canadians with an insulting ignorance of history

Stephane Dion succeeds in ways few Canadian politicians ever can. All the Liberal Party leader had to do was say a few words to the Chinese Canadian Liberal Assocation about how great it is to be a Liberal. But he decides to give a history lesson -- and in doing so, besmirches the memory of a great Canadian.

Why would he do that?

Maybe because that great Canadian, Douglas Jung, was a Progressive Conservative.

And so Stephane Dion wipes him from history.