The Always Irrelevant Joyce Murray
For the vast majority of my life, I have never been consumed by the experience of meeting politicians. Most do and I did, but when as a twelve-year-old, and I started out banging in lawn signs like a good apprentice. Let’s face it, it can be enthralling to meet someone whose mug graces the six o’clock news. It’s also no less intimidating acknowledging their ability to generate policies or at least initiatives. While the day of the better public servant seems to be fading, we can still point to a few, exceptions, from the past, like the NDP’s Margaret Mitchell and some from the present like Tory MP James Moore.
But then the other class of politician: The one who so clearly is out of his or her depth and can only be in it for the plumping of the ego.
In this latter category is one Joyce Murray, erstwhile B.C. Environment Minister (where she delivered a performance one cabinet colleague once gingerly described for me as, “an unmitigated disaster”) and now Member of Parliament for Vancouver Quadra.
Ms. Murray is well-known to me, as, a few years ago, the Liberal Party of Canada were mindless enough to send her off to debate yours truly on province-wide television. This happened several times, and in one masochistic blast of magnificent self- immolation, she eventually uttered, on-air, no less, “Boy, you’ve really gotten good at beating me up”.
Lord, how she makes it easy.
Joyce Murray proves time and again that the only reason she won a nomination contest against the abundantly superior and forever preferable Cindy Grauer, is that Ms. Murray was backed by Liberal (former) powerhouse organizer, Mark Marissen—he was, then, quite relevant in the party (after his Dion debacle, Mr. Marissen is taking, er, how shall we say this, a break). And, no less a qualification for representing one the of the most educated and well-to-do ridings in the country, Ms. Murray was also well-known in Liberal circles to have babysat Mr. Marrisen’s son. You remember young Hamish, (the lad with incredible ice hockey skills) whose now chatty mother, Christy Clark, left politics (for only a year and ten months before wanting back in as Mayor of Vancouver) to “raise him”? Alas, the credentials of Ms. Murray: Hadn’t lived in Quadra for thirty years, knew nothing of the riding and even less about how to get elected there. But the Liberal machine came out in full-force, including always- dependable Liberal super-organizer, Doug Leung, who ran successive, successful, Stephen Owen campaigns. It didn’t hurt, either, that the Conservatives ran Deb Meredith, a lovely woman, but not the most compelling candidate (as always, my charity is on display).
After getting elected, Ms. Murray has spent most of her time trying to hoodwink the public into the dreamscape that she is, in fact, noteworthy. Sadly, for her, Mr. Ignatieff has, at least, the better judgment to keep Jumpin’ Joyce away from any of the controls for fear of a certain train wreck. Everything she proffers is of the thinnest, overly political gruel, and her accomplishments both intra and extra-riding are prolifically underwhelming.
Case in point: Last week, in what can only be described as a mind-numbing example of Ms. Murray’s inability to summon even the most ordinary logic in arguing a case against the Harper government, she went to bat for the beleaguered gals trying to plead with the IOC, and until recently, the courts, to grant them the right to ski jump during the 2010 Games. Specifically, Ms. Murray wrote an embarrassing Op-Ed piece, for the always-dependable Province newspaper, wherein her line of reasoning is the surest example yet, that she has, if not anything else, a firm grasp of the banal.
Bubbling like a schoolgirl activist at a PETA convention, Ms. Murray’s shrill but shallow screed provided a glimpse into nothing. Simply, she was given some space in the best local newspaper, by far, and she squandered it by filling a dozen or so paragraphs with the kind of pulp you would expect from Pamela Anderson.
In her feeble attempt to upbraid the Prime Minister and his steady government, Ms. Murray began by recalling how the B.C. Supreme Court considered the exclusion of women ski jumpers as gender discrimination. She then mischaracterized why the Court of Appeal didn’t overturn the decision (a matter of procedure and convention, too, rather than strictly opinion).
And then the real trouble started.
Ms. Murray was required, by the local Grit back roomers, who are trying to bolster her sagging profile, to come up with an intelligent connector as to how the absence of women ski jumpers, strictly the purview of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), was the fault of the Harper government. Far from it, she decided to wax and waffle for the rest of the piece.
She even mangled her efforts to tack the PM with this much ado about something, when she noted the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision not to hear the case (a matter, again, of jurisdiction).
“In the absence of a legal solution a political solution is required”, she exclaimed.
According to Joyce Murray, politics and the law are interchangeable.
Oh dear…
The bigger problem being that her statement came after she admitted that the Canadian Courts, and thus Canada, have no jurisdiction over the IOC, “a corporation based in Switzerland”.
I tell you, Ms. Murray’s handle of the obvious is spellbinding.
Irrespective of reprehensibility, she then alluded, after clearly stating that Canada had no standing or bearing in the business of the IOC, that there was some nefarious plot by the federal government to keep these young gals of the flying skis, out of the Games. In fact, Ms. Murray demanded that, not to belly up to the bar (forgive me, Prime Minister) and insist to the IOC that women ski jumpers be permitted to compete, was contrary to Section 15 of the Charter. I note, with much amusement, but hardly surprise, that this is the same Charter of the same country, Canada, whose courts and Parliament have no jurisdiction over the IOC.
But let’s not allow for common sense to get in the way of a windbag in full exhalation.
Regardless of the fact that there is no legal or political institution in this country with any kind of oversight of the IOC, Ms. Murray demands that the Conservative government grandstand with nothing more than the kind of behavior that has delivered her own party to the cheap seats of the House, embalmed by disfavour and wrapped in unpopularity.
This must be instantly recognizable as further evidence that Ms. Murray’s prefrontal lobes are too small for any kind of equitable thought on serious matters. Instead of trying a bi-partisan approach, if she’d allow that the Tories have done a great deal more for amateur sport than her own party ever did, the die was cast, in support of the kind of partisanship and noise making the Liberals have always accused Mr. Harper of employing.
With such hypocrisy on garrulous parade and the contradictions thick and weepy, the cringing, withering argument Ms. Murray presented, has all the arresting marvel and delicate grace of an intoxicated bull-moose in heat.
Instead of being a facilitator of a fruitful dialogue to get this important issue before the IOC (and note the dearth of qualifying events for the women), Ms. Murray has proved herself to be as unscrupulously dimwitted as ever.
She remains a bitterly partisan federal Liberal hack, snout firmly and deeply into the public trough, with all the fastened integrity of a screen door in a hurricane.
Joyce Murray is the kind of bottom of the barrel, cynical choice for representative that the Liberal Party is offering Canadians.
And to show you how much the Grits really appreciate their predicament, and, moreover, the greater demands of Canadians, they are now quietly abandoning Michael Ignatieff for Justin Trudeau, whose soul accomplishment in public life is as a charter member of the ‘Lucky Sperm Club’; a kind of Belinda Stronach, but with a penis; a young man who has not only inherited his mother’s looks but her brains, too.
Incredible.
They might as well make Joyce Murray leader.
Well, I can see how your opinion of Joyce was formed.
None-the-less, with the ivory tower of UBC within it, Vancouver-Quadra is destined to be in opposition (Liberal) territory for some time to come.
Yes, I do admit that the riding is very much Red Tory/Blue Liberal!
I work within the riding, and their is an intense hatred of Stephen Harper and what he represents. The income trusts issues hasn’t been forgotten. Nor has Harper’s involvement in Afghanistan taken too lightly either (the fact that it was the Liberals put us there, is beyond the point),
Now, with the imposition of the HST, and the ballooning deficit, the Conservative brand is very tarnished in Quadra. And, the icing of the cake, Deb Meredith has been renominated as the Tory candidate!
Yes, I do agree that Joyce Murray is a bad MP, but the fact that her riding has been so solidly Liberal since 1984 means that she should easily win reelection in the next campaign.
Where were the Tory back room boys when it came to Vancouver South, were Wei Young came within 25 votes of defeating Ujjal? No, the organizers thought that Quadra was within easy reach for them, and that Van South would be a cake walk for the Liberals; how wrong were they!
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Hi Sean: Sure, I agree fro the most part. Except that I think they never believed they would get as close to Ujjal as they did and Quadra was certainly not within easy reach, otherwise you would have seen a whole parade of high-profile Ministers, who came through B.C., down in the heart of Quadra, constantly mainstreeting and making calls. It didn’t happen. What did happen was Doug Leung repackaged Murray and ran an incredibly good campaign. On the other hand, Deb’s mind-boggling incompetence was the killer. I sat, often in horror, of her answers…or attempts to answer. It was stunning. As for the other issues you raise, I’m thinking you are miscalculating a tad. The war was a Liberal deal to begin with, and the HST is identified largely with Gordon Campbell. the feds are loathe to step into something that is provincial at it’s genesis. You can’t reverse constitutional convention. The provinces are autonomous (moreso under Stephen Harper) or they are not. Thx for your comment. Good to have you by. Cheers.
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These are exactly the reason why I can never vote for the Liberals again. Also where is scary Harper? The Libs have spent so much time worrying about which group of users will get the patronage contracts that they forgot that without a real leader to lead into victory there are no plums! So glad for you blog Tsakumis.you really do tell it like it is.
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Scary Harper was a contrived slander by the drive-by media and the Liberal machine.
Thx for your kind words, too.
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Canada needs more Liberals like her.
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The problem is that the Liberals are offering not much better than her across the board, with few exceptions. Far be it from me to want better candidates in the Liberal bailiwick, but they can’t even assemble reasonable thinkers. My how the mighty have fallen…
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Better yet , the Conservative party needs more lieberals like her
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Yes, indeed…
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If she’s as horrid as you suggest, and she beat you, then what does that say about you? This sticks of quite obviously sour grapes and you should be embarrassed.
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Oh dear, I’ve upset you Jason? Maybe if reading weren’t such an issue, you wouldn’t be so upset. Joyce has never “beat me” at anything–nor would she ever. If you go back and re-read, you’ll see that Joyce ran against Deb Mererdith. I’ve never been a candidate for the Tories. I am not a politician. Thx for dropping by.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Upon further investigation, Mr. Cherniak is affiliated (as the administrator, no less!) with something called ‘Lib blogs’, which may explain his angst.
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Please add my name to those who didn’t previously read here but are real happy to have found you! I voted Liberal most oft adult life but never again because of people exactly like this woman Murray. Good on you for bringing some humble pie to their door. It is as you say. The Liberals are all about grandstanding. I’ve got you bookmarked now. Keep making them pay sir!
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I appreciate your comments. Thank you.
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Sign me up! This is the best piece on Joyce Murray I’ve read in a long time. I don’t care how useless Deb Meredith is, I’m voting conservative next election. Great post Alex. Got you from Bourque watch. Nice work.
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I’m so sick of Joyce Murray. She believes sucking up to the Asian community is just by showing up. Quadra deserves a good MP and Joyce isn’t it not close. As you say Deb is no good and I will never vote green. I will either hold my nose to vote for deb or stay home.
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It’s true…her pandering is as pleasant as old gym shoes.
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I think this is more a testament to our political system than anything else. There are a great many ridings that will vote for a certain party regardless of who the candidate may be. Some are so predictable that the party could nominate a stump, give it a name and still have a good chance of winning that riding. Of course, I exaggerate, but in many of these so-called safe ridings the parties are more likely to choose their candidate based on loyalty to the party rather than the intellectual qualities they may bring to the table.
As for the HST, I have to differ with your view. The federal Conservatives and the Liberals before them have been trying to coerce the provinces to jetison their respective PSTs in favour of the HST. They just used the $1.6 billion bribe to kill BC’s PST in much the same way someone hires an assassin to kill an enemy. For any of the federal parties to claim that they had to vote for the federal part of implementation of the HST is a cop-out. They state that it is a provincial government’s decision and the feds should oblige the province’s wishes. This argument just doesn’t pass the smell test.
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I still think it’s a matter of constitutional convention. It sets a dangerous precedent to overturn the will of a province (provided, of course, the issue is not threatening of our unity or economic security). As for the HST, in the long term, it is a good idea. But the timing and implementation and certainly the introduction by the Campbellites was appalling. Bad time for an HST, no question.
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Everyone in this riding should be made to read this post Alex. I’m going to send this to everyone I know. The Liberals are so cynical, that they don’t care about who they run where. As long as they get the riding into the win column. If the mp is shitty who cares? They are still corrupt and I will never vote for them. Thanks for your honesty.
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Bottom line is that both Murray and Dosanjh seriously embarrassed themselves over their mishandling of the HST vote (no-vote/so show) stance and were being justifiably ridiculed as a result. They were desperate to get any other headline out there and for Joyce Murray it was this lame women’s ski jumping issue (does she even have a constituent impacted by this?) and for Ujjal Dosanjh it was the Mikhail Lennikov sideshow (who I believe is at least within his riding at least)
For the Liberals the strategy clearly worked as both of these jump on the bandwagon manoeuvres made headlines and drove the HST charade into last weeks news. Pure politics at it’s finest.
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Yes, I saw it as pure deflection, but to mishandle the womens’ ski jumping story and appear so confused was beyond anything of the usual nuttiness Joyce brings to the table. The fact she confused jurisdictions and couldn’t quite connect how the PM could have any bearing on the IOC was something even for Joyce. As for Ujjal, I lost complete respect for him when all he had to offer last election were the tired old canards about the PM being an American puppet, scary and cradling a hidden agenda. Montebello, energy discussions, the Northwest Passage…the list of Harper sticking it to both Bush and Obama is endless. Then the agenda issue is ludicrous considering how fast the Tories would be thrown into the dust heap the very following election. It just won’t happen. They are, after all, politicians. The first thing they all want is another term…sadly. Doing something productive and substantive should be top of the list of priorities. Great perspective dipstick, thanks for sharing.
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So besides the HST and a well oiled Liberal machine why does Quadra continue to vote Liberal?
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Because the Quadra Conservatives are monopolized by old warhorses from thirty years ago who will not let go the reigns of the riding, for younger, intelligent, committed people to get the job done. And that’s why you get candidates like Deb Meredith. She is a not going to win and her performance in the last election was absolutely dreadful. Very fine woman, could be a good candidate elsewhere, but not in Quadra. Bottom line: Until the Quadra Conservative executive is populated by young, connected, eager folks, this is the kind of exercise in futility that you will see. And maybe if the warhorses aren’t gone they’ll get Deb Meredith to run for a fourth loss…sad. She originally committed to not run this time, after losing the by-election and getting trounced in the general. But the people backing her are well-known for their bovine stubbornness and will not let go. Mind, Tony Fogarassy is a nice man, but could not beat Joyce either. There are Tory candidates out there that could take Joyce, and handily, but none of them will leave their well-paying jobs or young families to win Quadra. This should be an alarm to the Quadra Tory executive, but I’m afraid they just can’t seem to shake the frost of (too many) winters past.
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Alex, I totally agree with you. That was a great post about Joyce Murray. She’s a terrible MP. Happy New Year to you and your family. Please keep up the great work. We need more like you in the media.
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Thank you. And to you and yours!
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One of your best posts yet, Alex. Hilarious and pointed.
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Thank you Tim. Happy New Year to you and yours.
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The only thing I can say about this piece is it is fantastic. The reason my party is dying is because of candidates like Joyce Muray. We can forget about Ignatieff. I’ve voted conservative for one election and I will do it again if they go anywhere near Trudeau. His father was bad enough.
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“The evil men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones” The Bard gave these words to Mark Antony to speak in Julius Caesar.
There has never been a more fitting line from any play I’ve seen or poem I’ve read, to describe the legacy of one Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
His son, Justin, is nothing more than a cheap facsimile of the man who left us with more ills plaguing this very nation, than any other Prime Minister in our history. Justin doesn’t even qualify as a throwback. He is, quite simply, about a mile wide but only an inch thick. His candidacy will demolish what will be left of the Liberal Party of Canada,
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This post is just great. A great reason why my partner and I come here for the news and really honest opinion rather than the canned status quo. Happy New Year Alex and please keep us informed. So many of us are relying on you.
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I had the “opportunity” to watch Ms Murray’s performance from close up as BC Environment minister. Martyn Brown persuaded Campbell to give her the job because her husband is a frigging tree planter and she might know something about trees and other environmental importances…really. She was a disaster, kept the wrong people and laid off the good ones. The ministry is still a mess today. That’s Joyce’s legacy to BC.
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I heard the same thing from Cabinet and caucus members alike. She was a complete failure.
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Can we please pension her off and get a decent candidate to run in Quadra??. Liberal, Conservative, whatevuh.
At this point, I’d vote for whoever can put lipstick on the least offensive pig. (please, no e-mails! Any reference in that sentence, to an MP, living or dead, is purely coincidental…)
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NTWW: You kill me…
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