MLA Deborah Drever calls identical holiday message an ‘unfortunate error'

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Faux outrage is my favourite kind of outrage.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by darklord700

Huge kudos to you.

Nothing says I'm a liberal minded person better than voting for a poor poor young girl who has been wronged by the world all her life and is now owed a living.

Her inspirational sob story serves as shining example to the younger generation that the longer the rap sheet, the better the person you are.

You are now invited to my Superbowl party and if she is free to come I would be absolutely delighted and honoured. I am giving out free premium pot.

Just out of curiousity, what is the end game here? I don't mean that she shouldn't be subject to any scrutiny, but she's apologized and from all accounts she seems to be doing decent work as an MLA at this point. Maybe she'll join the NDP caucus again, maybe not. Regardless though, what exactly do you want to see happen here?

[Rathji]

Every time she comes up, she will be the bashing target for everything that bitter WRP supporters hated about this last election.

1) She was elected as an NDP candidate. This election was all about being a protest against the PC party and Alison Redford, and they expected to get a windfall of seats because of it.

2) She likely wasn't as experienced (ie old) as the WRP candidate. They wanted their people with political experience to be in, not people who just signed up to volunteer and were then asked to run as a 'warm body'. Most winning political candidates spend time and money before the election, and this is kind of a kick in the face to that whole political machine.

3) She did stupid things at an age when we all did stupid things, but is in a generation where these things are commonly posted on social media. The whole "let those who are without sin cast the first stone" thing here really is the key. Unless you were perfect, judging someone harshly for stupid things like this is excessive.

This is how it will go for the new few years, and we just need to get used to it.

My stance on her is that she did some stupid things. Most of them I can pretty much forgive other than giving the finger to the Canadian Flag, because they are 100% normal things for most people to do and I would not think less of someone for doing them.

Am I more forgiving of what she did because she ran for the party I voted for? Probably. It would be foolish to discount that the bias exists, but it's not like I am an NDP supporter in general. The PC party had to go, and the other option was much worse. I don't think it clouds my judgement too much.

[CaptainCrunch]

Fair enough Rathji, but you missed out on one key point, that she did a major stupid and immature thing after she was elected, so we can't write this off as the indiscretions of youth.

The bottom line is that if you agree to run for public office or aspire to public office, then there really is no on the job training for it, and you have to expect to be scrutinized and spindled and criticized and attacked at every level.

That's the nature of the job. With the NDP one of the biggest failures with them right now is the quality of their MLA's, and the fact that because of the quality of their MLA's that its become a government focused on two people, and everyone else is a useless seat holder. That to me is bad government or at least the potential for bad government which is what we're seeing.

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by Slava

Just out of curiousity, what is the end game here? I don't mean that she shouldn't be subject to any scrutiny, but she's apologized and from all accounts she seems to be doing decent work as an MLA at this point. Maybe she'll join the NDP caucus again, maybe not. Regardless though, what exactly do you want to see happen here?

Sorry, no can say I have given any though to the end game other than the obvious one. I come here just to have a few laughs and a good time.

But if I do run into her, I would tell her if she wants all these vicious "attacks" to stop, learn from another fellow rookie student NDP MLA like this one. Only 21 but you never see or hear anything he says online so him nor his life never get discussed.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...lgary-hawkwood

[Slava]

Originally Posted by darklord700

Sorry, no can say I have given any though to the end game other than the obvious one. I come here just to have a few laughs and a good time.

But if I do run into her, I would tell her if she wants all these vicious "attacks" to stop, learn from another fellow rookie student NDP MLA like this one. Only 21 but you never see or hear anything he says online so him nor his life never get discussed.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...lgary-hawkwood

Oh good, so basically we have 3.5 years of whinging and complaining with no point other than that. I will just have to learn to avoid these threads.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Fair enough Rathji, but you missed out on one key point, that she did a major stupid and immature thing after she was elected, so we can't write this off as the indiscretions of youth.

Okay, I get that, but there is literally one mention of it in this whole thread, and all the other things are being dragged up as well.

This clearly isn't only WRP supporters being upset over someone being called gay on social media.

I honestly don't even find what she said to be that offensive, personally, but maybe I am missing some intricacies of the situation. Being gay isn't a bad thing, and I don't consider being called gay an insult.

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by Slava

Oh good, so basically we have 3.5 years of whinging and complaining with no point other than that. I will just have to learn to avoid these threads.

Please let me know if you find the meaning of life here so I can stop my tithing to my church.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Rathji

This clearly isn't only WRP supporters being upset over someone being called gay on social media.

"Raise your hands if you were upset when Drever used the term "Gay Boyz"... now... put down your hand if you cared about gay people at all before hand."

I didn't know WRP and conservatives in general had such a sweeping sensitivity to the community. Warms me heart that we can count on their unwavering support in the future.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by darklord700

Please let me know if you find the meaning of life here so I can stop my tithing to my church.

If you think paying your church money is going to reveal to you the meaning of life, I've got news for you....

/maybe next Sunday will be the day!

[peter12]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

Faux outrage is my favourite kind of outrage.

I can't take anymore of your blind insouciance!

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

"Raise your hands if you were upset when Drever used the term "Gay Boyz"... now... put down your hand if you cared about gay people at all before hand."

I didn't know WRP and conservatives in general had such a sweeping sensitivity to the community. Warms me heart that we can count on their unwavering support in the future.

Seriously, you're missing the point that she represents the province, her party and her government. This isn't day care or high school when you can fire slurs like that out at people.

Whether its an insult to a person to be called gay or not is irrelevant. She actively wanted to serve the higher cause of government and became a lightning rod for controversy, she also acted unprofessionally.

As much as we have the whole give her a chance and she's young BS, those don't apply here. This is a high profile job with a lot of public scrutiny, she was fortunate to get there, as I understand she did very little campaigning when she ran and basically stumbled into the job. But when you get there you don't get the breaks of an entry level job, theres little to no on the job training.

The reason why this government is so confused and fractured and top heavy and to an extent wacky is that they ran a lot of lousy candidates to fill a check list, and they didn't expect them to win their seats, so they basically ran as a resume filler or a lark, or as a cardboard cut out.

So when they won, this doesn't earn them any kind of special treatment or an excuse of I wasn't prepared for this, people are mean.

Being in an elected position is the ultimate act as if position, because economies, and confidence are driven by these public figures.

Act as if you're a professional, act as if you know you're in the public spotlight, act as if you have a brain and are qualified to work in government and represent your constitutions.

[woob]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Act as if you're a professional, act as if you know you're in the public spotlight, act as if you have a brain and are qualified to work in government and represent your constitutions.

She's trying to do that now but everyone still wants to hang her for the past. Let her do the things you list instead of waiting to hop on the next non-story that comes out in an attempt to keep her down.

Pretty simple.

[The Coppernian One]

Brian Mason has clarified her standing on Twitter (and this follows another tweet supporting her):

Brian Mason @bmasonNDP

@megbrays Not independent, temporarily suspended from #abndp caucus. Want to help her to succeed and return to caucus. #ableg

[nik-]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

"Raise your hands if you were upset when Drever used the term "Gay Boyz"... now... put down your hand if you cared about gay people at all before hand."

I didn't know WRP and conservatives in general had such a sweeping sensitivity to the community. Warms me heart that we can count on their unwavering support in the future.

I voted Conservative once. When I left the booth, I just immediately hated gay people. It's just what happens, you vote for a party, automatically anti-gay.

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

Faux outrage is my favourite kind of outrage.

Who's outraged? I re-read the thread and most posts are "hey, look, Drever f...ed up again" posts vs. "not a big deal" posts. Fair game. Kinda like "hey, look, Rob Anders fell asleep while in session". You can bet that Drever is going to become the NDP Rob Anders for those of us who think that her being in Government is a joke. Can't wait for the "Drever Is a Twat" mega-thread.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by nik-

I voted Conservative once. When I left the booth, I just immediately hated gay people. It's just what happens, you vote for a party, automatically anti-gay.

But secretly you loved them... loved them a lot. That's how that works.

[acerbic_1]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

Wow - this is a horrible post.

So you're calling one MLA a "hosebag"; and criticizing another for "blubbering like a five-year-old" after she had received death threats.

Personally, I think it is classy, upstanding folks like you who wouldn't be missed in this province.

Sadly, I'm not going anywhere. See you on the ice.

[Bigtime]

Political writer for the Herald Don Braid says it is now confirmed that Drever is back in the NDP caucus.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by darklord700

Sorry, no can say I have given any though to the end game other than the obvious one. I come here just to have a few laughs and a good time.

But if I do run into her, I would tell her if she wants all these vicious "attacks" to stop, learn from another fellow rookie student NDP MLA like this one. Only 21 but you never see or hear anything he says online so him nor his life never get discussed.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...lgary-hawkwood

He may have learned from the uproar after he made suicidal comments on Facebook after Ezra Levant came after him. (For something about Christians and Muslims being equally terrorists, not sure)

I live in his riding, and haven't heard anything about him since he was elected. I did read his bio prior to the election when deciding who to vote for, and didn't find it impressive. But he hasn't done anything to garner negative attention either.