The Written Word: Rafe Mair May 4th
By Rafe Mair
Friday, May 04, 2007 03:44 AM
Wouldn’t it be a good idea to look at exactly what Elizabeth May, the National Green Party leader actually had to say?First off, she didn’t say that Stephen Harper was like Hitler. In fact she said that Harper was like Neville Chamberlain, a politician who, in 1938 and 1939 did not take Hitler seriously enough. Chamberlain, after the Munich crisis blew away, was a huge hero. Ms May’s exact words were that the Prime Minister’s policy on the Environment was “worse than Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of the Nazis”.
I would not have chosen that simile for a couple or reasons. First, it’s extravagant and secondly any mention of Hitler or the Nazis brings an immediate reaction from people who somehow feel insulted even though you don’t even imply let alone allege that anyone is “like Hitler or the Nazis”
This is too bad because somehow one can get away with it if you’re on the side of the angels like George Bush, In those cases it’s not only fashionable but accepted that you can say, for example, the Democratic Party wants to appease militant Islam as Chamberlain appeased at Munich. In fact, Chamberlain’s three visits to Germany to see Hitler is the classic definition of appeasement in the worst meaning of the word.
Ms May chose her simile badly. It will cost her party dear but it must be remembered in fairness that the fault wasn’t entirely hers but much of it was people who totally misinterpreted her words for their own gain in brownie points.
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Posted by: diplomat on May 5 2007 8:14 PM
Not too many years ago there was a fabricated photograph on the front page of the Alberta Report or another of its incarnations in which Mike Harcourt and Glen Clarke were dressed up to look like Nazi Brown Shirts (SA). This libellous and disgusting episode was carried out when a very prominent member of the current Tory Government was the editor, I believe. At the very least, the Reform, Alliance, Tory group found it hilariously funny.
As I said, Hypocrytes.