What’s Charlie Angus thinking?
The NDP MP with a fondness for making noise on a guitar in his spare time, has called on his colleagues to ban the use of Twitter at committee meetings. (See our previous post)
Note to Charlie: let it go. Pretty soon they’ll be calling you a Comminist. Oops. Too late.
What Angus’s beef ?
That tweet sent by Scarborough Southwest Grit MP Michelle Simson making, ahem, light of Tory MP Dean Del Mastro’s weight during last week’s meeting of the Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Committee.
Del Mastro “should grow up (not out),” was Simson’s message.
Difficult not to feel sympathy for Del Mastro. But who are we kidding?
We’ve seen what’s supposed to pass for debate in the House on the evening news. More like an assembly of spoiled brats, all grown up mind you, with all the hooting and hollering going on.
It’s not like it’s the first time, either, that Simson’s tweeted in bad taste at the expense of political enemies.
A few months back it was former Tory MP Rahim Jaffer, charged with DUI and, as it happens, allegedly in the possession of some cocaine when he was pulled over by the OPP.
Who could resist a shot at ole Rahim given the Tory’s tough-on-crime billing? No harm in it, right?
Seems more than a few MPs are availing themselves of the social networking tool for little more than to poke their political foes, not unlike the modern-day version of the schoolyard bully.
But banning Twitter’s not the answer.
One Parliament Hill commentator for the CBC called Angus’s suggestion “downright draconian” (perhaps that was a little harsh) arguing that a ban would “deprive the rest of us… a periscope peek inside the minds of elected officials.” Hard to argue.
Don’t we want to know what our elected officials think? Doesn’t catching them in those candid moments reveal more about them than how they may vote on a particular issue?
That kind of information can be just as useful, if not more so, when it comes to making up our minds at election time, no?
Only problem is, incidents like Simson’s tend to be reported more as gossip when we do hear about them. And their importance in the grand scheme is diminished because of it.
The Simson incident is another case in point. The MP doesn’t seem to have learned anything from it, at least not anything important. Simson apologized to Del Mastro. Only, she forgot to include the millions of other Canadians struggling with weight problems that she may have offended with her tweet. Go figure.
