What she REALLY said

What Elizabeth May said during a TVO interview* wasn't really the issue in this post. The greater concern, for me, was the heavy-handed approach taken by Green Party of Canada communications director, John Bennett. It still is. I mildly bristle when political parties, out to garner as many votes as they can, lie, cheat and smear each other, then, in an effort to control the message even further, decide that they occupy some higher moral platform when dealing with individuals. Over thirty years of naval and military service taught me to despise all politicians, particularly during election campaigns.

There are those who say the first casualty of war is the truth. That is actually quite accurate but it should be remembered that it is generally politicians and rulers who act as the executioners. Election campaigns are different only in physical effect (although in many countries the blood-letting is quite real). The truth during an election campaign is so heavily buried that most voters have come not to expect to hear it and, if they're inclined to actually do some digging, burrow in to extract facts from under the weighty camouflage of political propaganda.

That said, the issue surrounding the threats levelled by John Bennett of the GPC against Buckdog deserves at least one point of clarification: What did Elizabeth May actually say?

Noni Mausa has taken the clip, slowed it down, cleaned it up and there can be no question as to May's words. Go listen to it. And then pick up on the rest of her point.

*TVO, as many readers will already know, is the Ontario public education organization funded both publicly and through donor sponsorship. It is not generally available outside of Ontario, especially in BC (which has its own public broadcaster).

Update: Kady has the latest including the intention of the Green Party to issue an apology to Buckdog and an explanation (of sorts) for the actions of John Bennett. That satisfies any demand I had and means I'm disengaging from this entanglement. Thanks Alison.

Further Update: Stavros Rougas, who works at TVO on The Agenda with Steve Paikin, visited in comments and points out that Elizabeth May will be on The Agenda this evening at 8:01 p.m. EDT. Given the events of the past 36 hours, it should be an interesting show.