Not quite. But I come from a culture where the unofficial motto was: You fight dirty? We fight dirty. I will exercise a small modicum of restraint - very small.
Sharon Smith, the Mayor of Houston, British Columbia, had more than a little fame after having donned the chain of office in 2002. She was very "hurt and embarrassed" by all that attention. She seems to be having a less emotional reaction at being used as a lever by the Conservative Party to subvert democracy.
The fame? Well, more like infamy.
On 11 December, 2003, the mayor of a small town in northern British Columbia, population 4,300, made titillating news in London, England; San Francisco, and; Chicago. To name just a few of the hundreds of places that told her embarrassing story.
So, perhaps Dick Harris, working so diligently for the Conservative Party cause, was going for name recognition in appointing her the "go to person" for the riding of Skeena-Bulkley Valley.
And it's that name recognition that is curious. The major organs of the reporting media have given this heinous assault on the electors of Skeena-Bulkley Valley a complete pass.
If Smith were to limit herself to municipal politics there is a chance her past ridiculous lapse in judgment might have faded into nothing but an urban myth. Hell, it isn't even in the pages of Snopes yet. But to become party to a political profanity suggests she is prepared to accept that the gloves are off. Or, in her case, everything but the gloves.
If this type of abuse of the democratic establishment of Canada had been perpetrated by any other party the Conservatives would have been digging under the fingernails of corpses looking for information to post on their party website.
So, Sharon Smith should expect what's coming.
The nude pictures don't matter. I'm sure a lot of people have them, although an intelligent person wouldn't leave them accessible on the family computer where "the kids" friends can get at them.
It's the apparent lack of respect for an office, which deserves to be held with dignity and reverence, which should call into question the fitness of an individual to stand for parliament or, in this case, somehow find herself made a form of government agent without portfolio. Yes, even the mayor of a small town in this country is expected to show deferential regard for the ceremonial trappings of office.
Sharon Smith didn't do that.
She mocked the office that had been handed her by the voters of Houston, B.C. It doesn't matter that the photo was intended to remain private; the place wasn't. It belongs to the ratepayers of Houston.
In short, not her office, not her chair, not her chain.
One can only question how she would treat a position of even greater authority than that of mayor of Houston, B.C.
How she fits in with the Conservative Party is another question, but then, I suppose they're not all that adept at using Teh Google.
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