Poor Dorkwell Day. The earth is 6,000 years old, the Great Lakes waterway drains south, global warming means more waterfront properties and, well, Mexico's history isn't what it seems.
Our Public Safety minister delivered himself of his opinions of Stephen Harper's recent trip to Mexico to attend the inauguration of President Felipe Calderon. Writing to his local "Penticton Western News", Day got the new fellow's name as Calderone, not Calderon. No biggie.
Where he really screwed up was in his comments about the current civil unrest in Mexico. He blamed it on the PRI:
"Mexico's democracy is really just coming of age since they have been ruled for almost 70 years by a pseudo-democratic regime," Day writes in the column.
"As with any loss of position the previous power brokers have been furiously trying to whip up mass protests in the streets to topple the new government."
The Toronto Star pointed out that, "In fact, the PRI has been working with the new president in a sort of unofficial alliance to help stabilize the country in the face of fierce opposition from leftist opponents to his presidency.
"Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the PRD party, was narrowly defeated by Calderon during the general elections in July. His supporters tried to derail the inauguration that Harper attended, and have staged massive demonstrations claiming that the elections were fraudulent. International observers, including Canada's Chief Electoral Officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley, have stood by the ballot results."
"Claude Denis, a political science professor at the University of Ottawa and a Mexico expert, calls Day's remarks "deplorable."
"'The fact that he doesn't seem to understand very well the political situation in Mexico is not reassuring of his ability to interact with his Mexican colleagues,' Denis said."
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