The Garish Ms. Parrish

I note that our Prime Minister has finally done the inevitable and tossed Carolyn Parrish out of the Liberal caucus.

Americans (assuming they actually care about such things) may remember Ms. Parrish as one of the Canadian politicians who was hypercritical of President Bush. ("Damn Americans, I hate the bastards," she said last year.)

Thing is, our PM is more of a moderate when it comes to Foreign Affairs, unlike his predecessor. And Jean Chrétien wasn't as rabid an anti-American as Ms. Parrish likes to present herself.

(And to be realistic, there wasn't all that much Canada could do to help out in Iraq, anyway. Anyone who's followed our history of neglect of the Armed Forces will understand immediately what I'm talking about.)

Still, our PM is a realist; he's not all that distraught about the idea of President Bush being around for the next 4 years. Which means Ottawa needs to be nicer to Washington--for a while, anyway. (You can bet the City of Montreal, at least, will be nicer--it's their baseball team that's moving there, after all.)

Ms. Parrish, however, doesn't seem to have forgiven the President for sticking around. (Witness her stomping of a Bush doll for this week's episode of 22 Minutes.) And a person like that can't really be allowed to sit on the Government side of the House; it sends the wrong message to Washington.

Ms. Parrish will be sitting as an Independent, so of course her opinions will continue to be heard. (It's inevitable, since most backbench MPs tend not to stick out; press coverage will always gravitate towards the biggest mouth.) Personally, I hope she's strong enough to survive the next election. I don't agree with her opinion of Americans, but loudmouths are always welcome on Parliament Hill.