Whores Ahoy!

When is a whore not whore?

Lou Schizas: Just to get back to our previous quick quotes on Andrea Horwath. I think whore is the operative syllable there. 

John Oakley: Well, well let’s not take it that far.

Schizas: What do you mean? She was bought.

Oakley: Alright, bought and paid for. Alright, it’s a pejorative.

Schizas: Alright, Sorry, I’ll take the hit.

Oakley: That’s alright.

Schizas: I’ll take the hit.

The exchange took place on the The John Oakley Show during a panel with Buzz Hargrove and Catherine Swift, who apparently did not call Schizas out on his comment after Oakley’s soft chiding.

Apparently this is now a controversy. Slow news day I guess.

I'm thinking back to all the times I've called male politicians whores. Not once have I gotten negative feedback from using that word in a political context. It's a time honoured tradition in Canadian politics to call male opponents whores. The term has been used even by a future Prime Minister of Canada.

Way back in 1984 John Turner, as part of a shabby deal with Pierre Trudeau, pushed through a series of patronage appointments, including that of Trudeau stalwart Bryce Mackasey as Ambassador to Portugal. Brian Mulroney, while privately admitting that he likely would have done the same thing, publicly quipped that: "There's no whore like an old whore." He still won a thumping majority government and fired Mackasey from his post.

Politicians calling other politicians whores is as Canadian as maple syrup and lousy weather.

Citizens calling politicians whores is, in certain circumstances, a patriotic duty.

So is Andrea Horwath a whore? Not really. While I have no problem with the pejorative it's misapplied in this context. A political whore is someone who betrays their principles. Ms Horwath hasn't betrayed her principles, she is instead skillfully manipulating the Liberal government. The goal of the NDP is to expand the scope and scale of government, both on ideological and practical grounds. The bigger government gets, the more dependent the ordinary citizen becomes on the state. This will make the ordinary Canadian more likely to vote for the party of big big government, the NDP.

So Ms Horwath is simply doing her job.

But isn't she propping up a corrupt government?

Yeap. But who voted this government in three times? It wasn't Ms Horwath, it was the voters. Don't expect higher ethical standards from political leaders than those exhibited by the electorate. If Ontarians are willing to tolerate such behaviour, they have only themselves to blame. The leader of the NDP is just playing the game by the rules that are laid out. 

Comments

[Don Morris]

"A political whore is someone who betrays their principles."

You are making the assumption that politicians HAVE principles,and while there may be a few, in today's political realm, self-interest rules the day.

What ARE Horwath's principles? Get ahead at all costs?

IMO, a "whore" is a politician who will do whatever is expedient to further their career, regardless of the impact of their actions on the taxpayers.

Many politicians will sell out for personal gain,Ontario's had a raft of those the last couple of years,so,what does Horwath have to GAIN from her support of the Liberals?

Maybe she intends to wait for that critical moment when there is enough public dissatisfaction that the Liberals can be defeated.

In the meantime,Horwath waits in the alley,"pssst,Hey! wanna see what I got to sell?"

No,"whore" may be inappropriate in today's faux genteel world, but whatever the euphemism, we know what Horwath is.

[simon]

'If Ontarians are willing to tolerate such behaviour, they have only themselves to blame.'

Although I can fully agree with this statement: it does nothing to assuage my feelings of resentment and distaste for a province of mindless lackeys, who would vote these people in and yes as mentioned,not once, not twice, but three times to raid the treasury and muddy the waters with their inane and destructive social engineering. Only to come around with cap in hand expecting equalization handouts of other province's hard earned dollar$ in the form of transfer payments as they squandered their own financial legacies; meanwhile expecting to have a majority province's say in how this country is run.

I am truly disgusted.

voter out west

[Anewconservativism.blogspot.com]

Hmmmmm, The whole whore Hor... thing is a bit jejune.
To that, it's perhaps better to say she's a slut who will get into bed with any party boasting a clean hard drive and the electorate are the whores selling dirty little pulls. Yep. Horwath gets shamed for her behavior while the electorate count their monies; contempt abounds.