Alas, poor Svend...

Via Adam Diafallah, I've learned that Svend Robinson, the man that has long occupied the number two position on my personal list of the worst Canadian MPs, is stepping down. (Number one is a nasty piece of work from Hamilton whose name sounds similar to Tequila Shots.) And not just for 'personal reasons', or 'to spend more time with my family', but because he stole some expensive jewelery.

Now he says he turned himself in (after a "weekend of great anguish"), but you can read between the lines and guess that whoever he stole it from confronted him about it and threatened to go to the police if he didn't go on his own. But because he is a member of the NDP, we can expect little inquiry into what really happened. In fact, apparently it's so difficult to believe that this paragon of virtue could ever be afflicted with such a base emotion as greed that the press is making excuses for him!

CTV's Craig Oliver noted similarities between this incident and something that happened in Ottawa, more than 20 years ago, that prevented MP Lorne Nystrom from running for the NDP leadership.

"What psychologists say about these two incidents, is that people who driven [sic] and under stress and can't bring themselves to quit, they do something that drives them to quit," Oliver said.

Sure Craig. Are you channeling Oprah?

Flakiness in the House of Commons has decreased 20%! A great day for all Canadians.

UPDATE: Andrew Coyne thaws out a nice hatchet job he did on St. Svend to help celebrate the occasion.

UPDATE II: And now he's taken it down -- claiming to feel sorry for poor Svend. Man. The quality of right-wing columnists at the Post has really gone downhill in the last year...

UPDATE III: The hatchet job can be found here.

Posted by Bruce Gottfred at April 15, 2004 04:18 PM | TrackBack