Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Leadership Hopefuls Lack Petrocan Glasses
Ottawa (FN) - The Liberal leadership race broke out into in-fighting again today as candidates accused each other of "unCanadian" attitudes over Petro-Canada drinking glasses.
Embattled candidate Joe Volpe, still reeling from the child-donation scandal, came out swinging by accusing many of his fellow candidates of failing to own the glasses, which were issued by the national gas-station chain to commemorate the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.
"Go to any garage sale in this country and take a good look. Petro-Can glasses are right up there with medicare, hockey and holier-than-thou attitudes. If you don't have one, you're not really Canadian," declared Volpe.
Front-runner candidate Michael Ignatieff, who lived most of the past 25 years in the United States, responded that he only requires glasses for reading and that he was not aware that the gas station franchise sold eye-wear.
In total, six of the 11 Liberal leadership candidates, including Ignatieff, Bob Rae, Carolyn Bennett, Stephane Dion, Hedy Fry and Maurizio Bevilacqua admitted in a leadership survey they did not own any Petro-Canada glasses.
Scott Brison, who had previously sat as a Progressive Conservative before bolting to the Liberals in 2003, admitted to owning a set of four Petro-Can brandy snifters, which he said were a Christmas present from former PC leader Joe Clark.
Rae, the former premier of Ontario, fired back at Volpe by claiming that it is owning the ubiquituous give-aways that marks a person as un-Canadian.
"I would ask Mr. Volpe, which Olympics was it for which these glasses were issued? The Calgary Olympics. That's right - Calgary, where Stephen Harper is from. I bet if you went inside 24 Sussex today, you would see wall-to-wall Petro-Can crystal - snifters, highballs, juice glasses, champagne flutes, beer glasses. If Mr. Harper owns these objects, how can Mr. Volpe claim that they are part of our Canadian values?" said Rae.
Rae stated that Petro-Can glasses were an ugly part of Canadian history that belongs in the past.
"I admit these glasses were once popular, but as even Mr. Volpe has admitted, everyone is desperately trying to get rid of them at garage sales. These are things, like heterosexual marriage, organized religion, parental child-rearing, personal responsibility and low taxes that, I believe, Canadians are eager to put behind them," said Rae.
posted by Mentok @ 3:21 p.m.,
12 Comments:
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At 4:26 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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American subtitles: I don't know where to begin explaining this bit to a foreign audience. A Canadian gas station chain used to hand out these commemorative glasses. The Liberal Party of Canada is looking for a new leader after they lost the last election. 24 Sussex is the address of the official Canadian Prime Minister's Residence.
But I expect only my domestic audience will get the joke. -
At 4:42 p.m.,
FiL said...
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Thank you for the education. Now I understand what the immigration official was asking about during my 12-hour interrogation as I attempted to enter the country last year. If I recall correctly, he said something along the lines of "I'm sorry, but a visa isn't sufficient. Your local consulate should have also given you a Petro-Canada glass."
FiL -
At 4:43 p.m.,
FiL said...
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Thank you for the education. Now I understand what the immigration official was asking about during my 12-hour interrogation as I attempted to enter the country last year. If I recall correctly, he said something along the lines of "I'm sorry, but a visa isn't sufficient. Your local consulate should have also given you a Petro-Canada glass."
FiL -
At 4:55 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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You mean you don't have any, FiL? Why didn't you say so. I've got a box in the basement I'll send you right away.
Hey, everybody...new guy! A new suck...er...successful immigrant on whom we can unload our Petro-Can crap. -
At 9:43 p.m.,
mkecurler said...
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Haha! There is a Joe Volpe here that owns 2 trendy restaurants!
p.s. I'd love to come to the promised land, but alas, jobs are hard to get! I apply on monster.ca every few months! -
At 5:00 a.m.,
jamwall said...
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mentok, since this is a political debate, you should have half of the article written in english and the other spoken in french (perhaps you could have an audio portion of a guy translating the french part).
sorry, that comes from checking out canadian parliment on CSPAN here in the states! LOL!
i love petro-canada. -
At 5:01 a.m.,
jamwall said...
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there was a similar controversy here in the states where people who didn't own "howard the duck" commemorative glasses were considered to be anti-george lucas.
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At 9:44 a.m.,
Library Mama said...
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Hmmmmm - I'm glad I was never on Joe Clark's Christmas list....
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At 11:38 a.m.,
FiL said...
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Ah, sabatkes, I did it the other way around: emigrated first, got job (9 months) later. Just something to consider...
FiL
P.S. Word verification gave me "phkgsut," which I think is an insult in Tagalog. -
At 3:23 p.m.,
jamwall said...
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this is the only blog where you'll get a joe clark reference.
Word verification:
TNAHPR <---- PR for hermaphrodites who enjoy TNA. -
At 4:31 p.m.,
said...
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Only a Red Tory would keep a box of the hated Petro Can glasses! Are Joe and Sinc hiding in your basement lovingly stroking those glasses. :)
ad -
At 5:13 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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LM - Hate to break it to you, but, to my enduring shame, we actually were on Joe's Christmas list for awhile.
Sabatkes - Where are you looking for work? Toronto? All we hear about out here in the West is labour shortages and how they have to ship people in by the train/boatload from the Maritimes and the Philipines to fill all the jobs. Lots of stories out of Alberta of employers flat out bribing immigrants to settle in Calgary.
jamwall - sadly, I'm sure this isn't the only blog with a Joe Clark reference. If only it were...
AD - Don't get me started about Joe and Sinc. Both those guys have a kick in the groin coming from me next time I see them.
...BTW, has any one heard from Joe "the merger Tories will never form a national government" Clark lately?
Ohmigod! Word verification says "clrk"! It's him! He's stalking me! Must hide...
