Rob Anders says Mulcair helped to hasten Layton's death.

[woob]

During an interview with ipolitics.ca reporter Laura Stone, Anders comes out with this:

“I actually think one of the great stories that was missed by journalists was that Mr. Mulcair, with his arm twisted behind the scenes, helped to hasten Jack Layton’s death,” he said.

“It was very clear to me watching the two of those gentlemen in the front benches, that Jack Layton was ill and that Mr. Mulcair was making it quite obvious that if Jack wasn’t well enough to fight the campaign and fight the election that he should step aside, and that because of that, Mr. Layton put his life at risk to go into the national election, and fight it, and did obviously an amazing job considering his state of health, and that he did that partly because of the arm-twisting behind the scenes by Mulcair and then subsequently died.”

Will be curious to see what the fallout from this is, as we all know, Mr. Anders has quite the history behind him. I'll be interested to see if other Conservatives hold this view but have just not spoken about it.

The goverment tweeted a response to this as well this morning:

To be clear, Mr. Anders’ comments regarding Jack Layton in no way represent the views of @pmharper or the Government.

So - Thoughts on this? Is Anders right even though it was insensitive of him to speak about it? He is out to lunch and is this the kind of comment that he should finally resign over? Discuss.

[Ozy_Flame]

Damn, you got it first.

[MarchHare]

Another day, another stupid Anders gaffe. In the end, this means nothing. It should be obvious at this point that Anders is completely immune to any form of accountability either from the citizens in his riding or the CPC caucus. Voters in Calgary West will continue to re-elect him to landslide victories time and again solely because he has "Conservative Party of Canada" under his name on the ballot.

[Reaper]

Wow, Anders. And here I was thinking that he couldn't top the "Mandela is a terrorist" thing. Bravo, you truly disgusting human.

[mariners_fever]

Funny enough, the day the 2011 election was called several of my friends who are staffers on the Hill had mentioned that Layton actually had little to no appetite to bring down the House when they did. Apparently Mr Layton did not feel as though his health would allow him to fight as strongly as he could otherwise. A few had suggested that it was indeed Mr Mulcair who had pushed hard within caucus to prod Mr Layton into voting to bring down the house. Even some of my NDP friends feared that the election would hasten Mr Layton's death.

It isn't completely out there to suggest that the rigors of fighting an election in poor health detrimented a man who was recovering from cancer and had just discovered he had it a second time. Sure enough, the circumstances led to Mr Layton having the campaign of his life and the untimely end thereafter.

I'm no Anders supporter, I just find it funny how hysterical everyone gets whenever his name is mentioned. I didn't see anything overly outrageous in this article. Nothing I hadn't heard before from numerous people with different accounts. If people not named Anders had made these observations, I bet the discussion level would be much different.

I don't see how it makes him a disgusting human to suggest that people's ambitions drive events in politics. It's been that way since the dawn of time.

[Rerun]

What a f-ng idiot. I just don't understand why his riding association hasn't hasn't thrown this jerk out on his ass.

Edit: You know, it may be true (I have no idea if it is or not) but its a totally classless thing to say to the media. Basically he's come out and said Mulcair killed Jack Layton before his time.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by Rerun

What a f-ng idiot. I just don't understand why his riding association hasn't hasn't thrown this jerk out on his ass.

They've tried.

Stephen Harper personally intervened on behalf of Anders to over-rule the grassroots will of the local riding association to oust Anders and nominate a competent Conservative candidate instead.

The Calgary Herald recently published an article on Calgary West MP Rob Anders. CH says: “An MP widely considered invisible at best, and horrible at worst, has been saved from local rejection after party headquarters denied his own riding directors the chance to shop for a better Conservative candidate.” Stephen Harper personally shut down the challenge to Mr. Anders automatically receiving the Conservative nomination in his riding. “Rob is a true reformer and a true conservative,” Harper declared after saving his candidate from a challenge two years ago. “He has been a faithful supporter of mine and I am grateful for his work.”

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by mariners_fever

Funny enough, the day the 2011 election was called several of my friends who are staffers on the Hill had mentioned that Layton actually had little to no appetite to bring down the House when they did. Apparently Mr Layton did not feel as though his health would allow him to fight as strongly as he could otherwise. A few had suggested that it was indeed Mr Mulcair who had pushed hard within caucus to prod Mr Layton into voting to bring down the house. Even some of my NDP friends feared that the election would hasten Mr Layton's death.

It isn't completely out there to suggest that the rigors of fighting an election in poor health detrimented a man who was recovering from cancer and had just discovered he had it a second time. Sure enough, the circumstances led to Mr Layton having the campaign of his life and the untimely end thereafter.

I'm no Anders supporter, I just find it funny how hysterical everyone gets whenever his name is mentioned. I didn't see anything overly outrageous in this article. Nothing I hadn't heard before from numerous people with different accounts. If people not named Anders had made these observations, I bet the discussion level would be much different.

I don't see how it makes him a disgusting human to suggest that people's ambitions drive events in politics. It's been that way since the dawn of time.

I agree with this post. It was pretty stupid of Anders for saying it publicly, but he basically said what some people were thinking in the back of their minds. People go pretty far for their ambitions, and some people will do anything to acheive it, at the expense of others. This is especially true if the others aren't their family or people they care about. Maybe I'm just jaded, but IMO, it takes a person who has this type of attitude to be a politician.

[Northendzone]

i wonder why mr. andr\ers has decided he needed to be the one to bring this to everyone's attention......i guess he had gone for a few months without seeing his name in print.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

i wonder why mr. andr\ers has decided he needed to be the one to bring this to everyone's attention......i guess he had gone for a few months without seeing his name in print.

The reporter who interviewed Anders was on CBC Radio this morning to discuss this story. She claimed she asked him an open-ended question, "What do you think about Mulcair?" Without any prompting, Anders went into a long-winded tirade about how Mulcair was personally responsible for worsening Layton's already failing health by forcing a tiring election campaign on him and how the media failed to report this story.

[mariners_fever]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

The reporter who interviewed Anders was on CBC Radio this morning to discuss this story. She claimed she asked him an open-ended question, "What do you think about Mulcair?" Without any prompting, Anders went into a long-winded tirade about how Mulcair was personally responsible for worsening Layton's already failing health by forcing a tiring election campaign on him and how the media failed to report this story.

So in other words, a politician asked a question by the media, answered the question, and is now lambasted by the media for being honest?

Again, I'm no Anders supporter, but people complain and wonder why we only ever get dishonest politicians who only regurgitate party talking points?

This reporter sounds spineless to set up a lunch and lead someone to believe they're being given an honest interview only to use it to make try and make them look bad. Shame.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by mariners_fever

So in other words, a politician asked a question by the media, answered the question, and is now lambasted by the media for being honest?

lol no. There are a lot of ways to answer that question and not make yourself look like a mouthbreathing moron.

[MarchHare]

How the heck is "What do you think about Mulcair?" a leading question? This is no more an example of gotcha journalism than Katie Couric asking Sarah Palin what magazines and newspapers she reads.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by mariners_fever

So in other words, a politician asked a question by the media, answered the question, and is now lambasted by the media for being honest?

Again, I'm no Anders supporter, but people complain and wonder why we only ever get dishonest politicians who only regurgitate party talking points?

This reporter sounds spineless to set up a lunch and lead someone to believe they're being given an honest interview only to use it to make try and make them look bad. Shame.

What a ridiculous post. He's not being lambasted for being honest. He's being lambasted for being a callous idiot. And what was the reported supposed to do with that quote?

[EddyBeers]

Leading question? That is ridiculous, that question is as leading as if someone asked me "What do you think about MarchHare" and I respond "I think he eats babies" and the headline is "Eddybeers thinks MarchHare eats babies" and then I try to say it was gotcha journalism.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by mariners_fever

So in other words, a politician asked a question by the media, answered the question, and is now lambasted by the media for being honest?

Again, I'm no Anders supporter, but people complain and wonder why we only ever get dishonest politicians who only regurgitate party talking points?

This reporter sounds spineless to set up a lunch and lead someone to believe they're being given an honest interview only to use it to make try and make them look bad. Shame.

If a member of the media is interviewing you - you have to expect that the contents of that interview are going to make their way into the article. To go off on a diatribe like he obviously did shows a complete lack of cognitive thought on the part of Rob Anders. He is obviously not a smart man, not for taking the position (which itself is sort of stupid) but for going to the media and actually stating it. It isn't about being honest - it is about being sensible

[mariners_fever]

Originally Posted by rubecube

What a ridiculous post. He's not being lambasted for being honest. He's being lambasted for being a callous idiot. And what was the reported supposed to do with that quote?

See my previous post. His account isn't much of a stretch from much of the scuttlebutt on the Hill a year and a half ago. Take it from a former Hill staffer who was there.

[mariners_fever]

Originally Posted by EddyBeers

Leading question? That is ridiculous, that question is as leading as if someone asked me "What do you think about MarchHare" and I respond "I think he eats babies" and the headline is "Eddybeers thinks MarchHare eats babies" and then I try to say it was gotcha journalism.

I never said it was a leading question.

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

Originally Posted by EddyBeers

Leading question? That is ridiculous, that question is as leading as if someone asked me "What do you think about MarchHare" and I respond "I think he eats babies" and the headline is "Eddybeers thinks MarchHare eats babies" and then I try to say it was gotcha journalism.

I really hope that at the end of this whole discussion, that the primary point that comes out of all of this is that MarchHare eats babies.

[MarchHare]

As I point of correction, it should be noted that I don't eat babies, I kick babies. I do eat kittens, though.