NDP fantom MP made first public appaerance

[viper37]

She exists, she speaks, she's a real person.  Wow.   

Her French is much better than what we were let to think.  In fact, her father is french-speaking, it's just that she moved to Kingston at a young age and forgot most of it.  She's quickly re-learn the essential, enough to answer most questions adressed to her in a typical franco-ontarian Frenglish.

We now know why she was an absentee MP, it's simply because she was undergoing a profound transformation.


So, last week, Ruth Ellen Brosseau looked like this:


This week:



Amazing what a few thousand dollars more in your bank account and the support of a national political party can do to you.

I wish she was a Conservative MP.  She's to damn pretty to be in the NDP

[Bluebook]

What?

[Grey Fox]

[Malthus]

What?

You need the backstory - this lady was put up for election by the NDP party in Quebec riding, but purely intended as a place-holder - she was a part-time bartender who was buddies with someone in the party, did not bother campaigning (she spend part of the election on a holiday in Vegas), allegedly never set foot in the riding, and supposedly did not even speak French.

However, in spite of all that, because of a massive pro-NDP wave of voting in Quebec, she won.

Now the NDP is faced with the task of transforming her into a politician.

[Camerus]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/text-message-tweaked-rookie-new-democrat-to-her-surprise-victory/article2019796/

Text message tweaked rookie New Democrat to her surprise victory

... Thursday, we meet Laurin Liu. She's one of the twenty-somethings studying at McGill who will now sit in the House of Commons. Born in 1990, Ms. Liu has a little more experience in politics than Ms. Brosseau. She was a member of NDP McGill and has run for student positions.

Typically, at least for someone her age, she found out about her election victory – in Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, northwest of Montreal – by text message. How appropriate that she will now be working for Jack Layton, the social-media savvy leader who referred to Stephen Harper's tough-on-crime agenda as "hashtag fail" during the leaders' debates.

In an interview with The Mark, Ms. Liu recalls that moment: "My friend ... texted me and sent me a text message saying, 'you won' and then there were, like, kind of exclamation marks following that and all in caps. So that was actually how I found out."

Ms. Liu makes some valid points in defending the sudden influx of youth into the House, arguing young people bring a lot of "energy into politics."

Mr. Layton, she notes, has observed that while many Canadians complain there are so few young people in Parliament, "when they get elected to Parliament we complain about it."

"So that doesn't make sense," she argues, noting she and her colleagues are putting their noses to the grindstone to do a good job for their constituents.

[Malthus]

I kinda feel sorry for these neophytes. The press is just waiting for them to say stupid stuff, to make fun of them. Being NDP is bad enough for saying stupid stuff, but NDP and in one's early 20s and a political newbie? That's gotta suck. 

[viper37]

It will depend on what the Bloc does.  The journalists of the province are massively pro-Bloc, and it shows.  If the Bloc shows signs of remaining a political force with a possible come-back, these newbies will face Hell.  If the Bloc kills itself, they may switch their allegiance to the NDP, what with being the most popular "ABC" party out there.

[crazy canuck]

I kinda feel sorry for these neophytes. The press is just waiting for them to say stupid stuff, to make fun of them. Being NDP is bad enough for saying stupid stuff, but NDP and in one's early 20s and a political newbie? That's gotta suck. 

I think they are going to cut her a lot of slack.  She is really an innocent victim of circumstance.  Its the voters' fault she is in this position, not hers.  Anyone who attacks her directly could suffer a lot of blow back.

[Josephus]

I kinda feel sorry for these neophytes. The press is just waiting for them to say stupid stuff, to make fun of them. Being NDP is bad enough for saying stupid stuff, but NDP and in one's early 20s and a political newbie? That's gotta suck. 

I could think of things that suck worse.

[Josephus]

I kinda feel sorry for these neophytes. The press is just waiting for them to say stupid stuff, to make fun of them. Being NDP is bad enough for saying stupid stuff, but NDP and in one's early 20s and a political newbie? That's gotta suck. 

I think they are going to cut her a lot of slack.  She is really an innocent victim of circumstance.  Its the voters' fault she is in this position, not hers.  Anyone who attacks her directly could suffer a lot of blow back.

Besides, we don't know yet that she's gonna suck (no sex pun intended). Apparently she's learned French and was giving interviews in French already. Let's give her, and the rest of the neophytes some space. No doubut a bunch of them we'll never hear from again, but I imagine a few of them will be around politically for awhile.

Also, and this is very important and makes a whole lot of difference: She is fucking hawt.

[crazy canuck]

Besides, we don't know yet that she's gonna suck (no sex pun intended).

From bar maid to polished politician? I'm taking the odds against on that one.  Although we have elected some seriously bad MPs in the past.  Heddy Fry even got elected again so, on reflection, in relative terms, you might be right.

[Malthus]

Besides, we don't know yet that she's gonna suck (no sex pun intended).

From bar maid to polished politician? I'm taking the odds against on that one. 

That works either with or without the sex pun. 

[Josephus]

To be fair, bar maid-ing was putting her through school and probably wasn't intended to be a full time career.   There's no where that says being a rich lawyer is a requirement of being a politician. Thank God.

The fact that she seemingly has learned conversational French in a week bodes well on her intelligence, I'd say.

[Maximus]

There's no where that says being a rich lawyer is a requirement of being a politician. Thank God.

I'm with you on that. Lawyers are over-represented in politics. Although that is  less so in Canada than here, I think.

[Malthus]

To be fair, bar maid-ing was putting her through school and probably wasn't intended to be a full time career.   There's no where that says being a rich lawyer is a requirement of being a politician. Thank God.

The fact that she seemingly has learned conversational French in a week bodes well on her intelligence, I'd say.

I wonder what the odds are that she:

1. Won't say anything much at all;

2. Will say stuff, and make a fool of herself; or

3. Will say stuff demonstrating a brilliant political insight?