Well, Julian, If You Can’t Stand The Heat…

Get out of the kitchen! Or in this case, out of Ottawa!  This time, it was to the Toronto Star‘s Linda Diebel he went a whinin’ to.   Lessee, where do we begin?

“The eye-opener for me was all the hype during Question Period. I got the business on a number of issues … on seniors not having adequate pensions (while) the minister for seniors has multiple pensions,” he says.

Uh, Julie-Pooh! Actually, that was many of us voters who actually have been paying attention.  Hell, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again today. How in the name of hell can you relate to your average senior? Actually, how can you possibly  know the (financial) challenges they face day to day? You can’t until you’ve lived it yourself.  And ya know something? If you really cared about the plight of seniors, you’d renounce your plush MP salary and benefits, as well as all your pensions and actually only live on the OAS/GIS.  It’s the only way you can get any real grasp of their reality.

He goes on proving, further that he simply doesn’t get it.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Fantino asks. “I didn’t rob any banks. I didn’t steal anything.”

Fantino, 68 and a parliamentary rookie, says he “worked diligently and paid my dues for 40 odd years” before deciding to run for the Conservatives and scoop up a former Liberal riding.

Guess what Julie? Got a newsflash for ya. Most seniors also worked diligently for 40; even 50+ years  and they’re still stuck living below the poverty line today. How do ya square that one?

He goes on and on accusing the opposition parties, of…get ready for it…lack of accountability! He can’t handle the name calling or the insults.

“The other thing that grabs me is the immunity from accountability in the House,” he continues. “I’ve been called a few things and they’ve got protection. I’ve always found that kind of strange.

“It seems people in there can decimate your integrity, trample your good name, call you every awful name, accuse you of the most heinous things — and they do it with a straight face.”

Adds Fantino: “They put all the ‘appropriate’ anger and show business stuff into it — Hollywood, really — and it’s widely reported on television, with everybody (having access to it) and yet it’s protected.”

He throws up his hands to say: “Politics or no politics, I’m never prepared to say something in (the House) that isn’t true or that I don’t believe or feel accountable for. God bless our democratic system, but I’ve taken about three torpedoes already.”

I’ll say one thing, Julie-Pooh’s whining and thin skin does have a certain entertainment value.  Speaking of entertainment, he doesn’t like it when folks talk against his Master Stevie Spiteful; just takes exception to it!

He says he gets along well with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, adding “there’s a misunderstanding (that) he’s autocratic, doesn’t listen, is a dictator and doesn’t allow free thinking.

“That’s just not right. That’s not who I’m working with. He’s very conscientious, caring and approachable.”

Stop laughing!  Yanno he has to say nothing but good things about Stevie to make seem all warm and cuddly even though it’s the furthest thing from the truth. Hell, those Conservative insiders and former staffers and NCC colleagues of Stevie’s imply that he doesn’t allow free thinking and that he’s a dictator (Harperland).

Anyhow, back to that whole Julie-Pooh and his new rallying cause–senior citizens–a major Harpercon demographic.  Well, talk is cheap!  The Liberal Party has put out a package for a Family home care program. It’ s pretty much a foregone conclusion that the Harpercons are not going to even adapt any part of that program or implement it in the next budget.

Jack Layton has already made demands on behalf of seniors on your buddy, Deficit Jimbo’s budget in exchange for his support. If you really care about seniors, you would be working Jimbo and Stevie.  If Stevie is really as “caring” as you tell Linda Diebel and the rest of the world he is, then this is your chance to prove it.

As they say, put your money where your mouth is, Julie! Are you game?