After 15 very idle years, and mere months before his retirement, my MP, the Conservative member for Nanaimo-Alberni, Doctor (no less) James Lunney has caught the interest of the CBC.
So what great achievement has brought the former chiropractor to the notice of CBC? You could put it down to his Christian fundmentalism. Lunney doesn't believe in climate change. Only God can change the climate. He doesn't believe in evolution either, although he says he's prepared to acknowledge it as a "theory." Oh yeah, he also doesn't believe in vaccination.
Lunney dwells in the darkest recesses of the faith based, fundmentalist Right. This probably explains why, with his own party in power for the bottom half of Lunney's political career and even with the incredible paucity of talent in Harper's caucus, Lunney has been left to languish as perhaps the most irrelevant of backbenchers.
Sometimes, while knocking back a brew with fellow constituents, I play a little bar game. I first ask if they can name our sitting member of Parliament. Most can get it right, eventually. Then I ask them to recall the greatest contribution MP Lunney has made to our riding in his 15-year career in Parliament. Name one thing, just one, for which he'll be remembered. The answer is always the same - a blank stare.
I can't imagine how this joker has held the riding since 2000 but for the loyal support of his fellow Christian fundies and all those rightwing peckerheads from the Prairies who continue to retire here. Oh that and a low voter turnout.
James Lunney makes it embarrassing to admit you're from his riding. At least most of the other ridings on the island go NDP. Unfortunately, when it comes to Nanaimo-Alberni, the Conservatives have demonstrated conclusively that they can get a candidate straight out of the Dark Ages elected again and again.
Here's Lumpy at his finest. No, he's not a polished speaker either but, then again, he rarely has anything to say.
Oh yeah, not to sell Herr Doktor short, here's another one of his classic moments in the House.
You have my sympathies. We had Stockwell Day until his retirement followed by Dan Albas who reads from Harper's script. Canada's political arena is filled to the brim with Mps and MLAs who would never get elected in a healthy society. Something is very, very wrong.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant comment, Toby. You're absolutely right. In a healthy society people like Lunney would never get elected, especially not re-elected. His record stands as a demonstration of our enfeeblement.
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ReplyDeleteYou must be so proud of your MP. And I thought I had it bad with the elocution school dropout, Diane Ablonczy.
ReplyDelete"he's prepared to acknowledge it as a "theory.""
ReplyDeleteHe already doesn't understand how science works, right there.
It's a shame how election rules have been changed to dissuade mock and satirical candidates from running. This Lunny would be prime target for that old Rhino Party.
I'm surprised Lunney doesn't question the theory of gravity when he commutes to Ottawa.
ReplyDeleteHe speaks mound as if what he has to say is important to us. It isn't! Saying that evolution is not a fact is like saying the earth is not round. It is interesting that Harper is letting his evangelicals speak, but I guess this guy is leaving soon, so he spews his dark age rhetoric as he walks out the door.
ReplyDeletePamela, it was interesting to watch the complete boredom of Lunney's caucus colleagues as he delivered his mini-rant.
ReplyDeleteWe have endured Lunney and his mealy-mouthed shilling for the destruction of all that's good, and everything else along the way for far too long. The problem is that the opposition parties don't understand the concept of collaboration. In addition, I can't see that Trudeau is much different in substance than Harper, and Mulcair looks as though he needs to make deep changes to his frame of reference. Elizabeth May says all the right things, bt I fear her party is much less in tune with the nature of our crises than their sole elected representative in the House. Nasty prospects.
ReplyDeleteHe's not a real doctor. He's yet another chiropractor in the CPC caucus.
ReplyDeleteChris, I was on the phone to his constituency office a few years ago. At some point I asked the worker whether Lunney was a doctor and she said, yes, he's a chiropractor. I then asked her if I was supposed to call him "doctor" did that mean I had to call my car mechanic "professor?" For some reason she hung up on me.
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