Did he follow it with a retweet in french?

FTA

I'm a construction worker by trade. It's the way we communicate with each other," he said.

I'll bet he also sings along to classic rock songs in an annoying, deliberately off-key, off-time manner.

/also construction by trade...

Hero tag?

So, for instance, when in a recent national speech, the financial minister of the Royal World Estate of Qualvista actually dared to say that due to one thing and another, and the fact that no one had made any food for awhile and the king seemed to have died, and that most of the population had been on holiday now for over three years, the economy had now arrived at what he called, "One whole juju-flop situation," everyone was so pleased he felt able to come out and say it, that they quite failed to notice that their five-thousand-year-old civilisation had just collapsed overnight.

"There's something seriously fundamentally wrong here in Ottawa and if it took an f-bomb to draw attention to it so be it," Martin said.

Pure WIN, This is the same tactic that should be used whenever someone brings up Grover Norquist

*goes to Twitter*
*searches Pat Martin*
*clicks on profile page*
*clicks 'follow'*

I want politicians like this.

I'm proud to live in the only NDP riding (electoral district) in Alberta. It's like an island of rationality in a vast sea of derp.

fark Grover Norquist.

Time to send in the NDP back room boys.

Pat, if Canada don't want you after this, there's a job for you down here. We can promise better weather than Winnipeg, and if you love ice hockey, you'll like Aussie rules.

/Australian
//You call that swearing?

Last time we had anyone with something close to this level of blunt honesty- Alan Grayson- he was defeated by a zerg rush of Republican minions, although I understand he's looking at running again. The only other guy in Congress who had anything like a spine wound up having to resign due to Bonergate, which was incredibly stupid on his part.

Glad to see this guy out there calling out the bullshiat, though... rock on Pat Martin!

Damnit! Who typed a curse word on the Teleprompter? For the last time, anything you put on that 'prompter, Martin will tweet.

I've been an NDP supporter for years, and this kind of thing is why.

Never liked the NDP, or any party really, but my god, that was awesome.

A politician speaking his mind? Win.

Based on the headline alone, my original thought was that this was going to be about Rob Ford -- but then I realized that would have required him talking to the media...

There was that fat guy from the redneck party(Reeeforrrrmmm) years ago, crossing the floor to see if the opposition guy had the 'gonads' to something or another. What ever happened to those guys? And why did Kanadians vote in republicans for a majority? You is Americas hat, indeed. Or is that Touque?

/Hey it's fun teaching little kids to say 'gonad'. Heh, Heh.

Scumbag Canadian media:

Ignores Conservatives shutting down debate on budget
Freaks out over someone's perceived rudeness on Twitter

This is the state of our country's political journalism, people.

"the people of Canada will judge"

the people of Canada think we shouldn't be afraid of words,
and are embarrassed to have elected other politicians who are.

SO GO DUDE!

MEANWHILE the conservative party is sucking American dick and swallowing failed policy, trying to privatize anything that should belong to the People and imprison anybody uncool with arbitrary and pointless drug laws.

Hey 'tough on crime' dumbasses- punish the BEHAVIOR, not the substance.
No molecule is "evil" you farking retards.

More to the point,

Step 1: Elect to executive office a man who comes from a construction background. Protip: Construction managers like being handed a project and figuring out how to get things DONE in the least amount of time. If you show up to the site and do nothing but talk about your opinions, expect to get your ass kicked.
Step 2: Said man finds himself surrounded by people who have always been white-collar "me-first" power jockeys, and who spend most of their time trying to be total jackwagons instead of trying to get anything done
Step 3: Act all surprised when he loses his shiat.

/also from a construction background
//has cursed out quite a few 'me-first', 'consider my feelings', 'this idea works for me at the expense of all of you', 'my idea sucks but I can shut down your idea via parliamentary procedure' jackwagons encountered outside of that environment

ishidan has point every single construction supervisor (that i worked for) has either wanted to get the job done promptly or has been working with the construction team so long he doesn't have to say anything and lends a hand here and there to help us get the building built faster and god help you if he catches you screwing around when its not thirty minute break.

I'd say "I will apologize only if someone can show me a non-opinion based reason as to why saying f--k is bad"

"When another tweeter called Martin a "foul mouth socialist," the response was "f--k you."

And If I were that tweeter, I'd respond with "when?" And if he responds by calling me an asshole, I'd respond by saying LOL, I said when, not where!"

Get Lost: There was that fat guy from the redneck party(Reeeforrrrmmm) years ago, crossing the floor to see if the opposition guy had the 'gonads' to something or another. What ever happened to those guys? And why did Kanadians vote in republicans for a majority? You is Americas hat, indeed. Or is that Touque?

/Hey it's fun teaching little kids to say 'gonad'. Heh, Heh.

Unfortunately the way our system is set up, a majority government can come into power without the majority of popular support. The Conservatives won a majority of seats with only (iirc) 34% of the popular vote. In Ontario, for example, they increased their popular vote total by 5% over the previous election, yet increased their number of seats by 20%. Part of the reason is that there are two major parties to the left of the Conservatives that end up splitting the vote, effectively handing seats to the right. As great at a multi-party system is when it works (making interparty cooperation absolutely necessary to get anything done), when it fails, it fails spectacularly. Now we're stuck with a Conservative government that can do anything it wants for the next few years and as long as they don't stray into blatantly unconstitutional territory, no one can stop them. They've already passed a bill to phase out public campaign financing, and are pushing through a crime bill that even some Texas Republicans say is a mistake. Unfortunately, unless the Conservatives do something truly heinous to make their own supporters turn against them, it looks like the only way to defeat them in the next election will be for the parties on the left to consolidate. In addition to Harper privatizing everything he can get his hands on (starting with prisons), he's going to be instrumental in ushering in what is essentially a two party system. While the US tries to get out from under a failing two party system and a "privatize profits, socialize risk" mindset, Harper looks south and thinks that's exactly what Canada needs. It's insane.

If he's already frustrated with not getting his way in debating a budget that should have been passed months ago, then he's gonna be in for a long four years of Conservative majority government.

One swear-loaded comment from an elected center-left politician who's noticed that things are going completely haywire in his country is apparantly more powerful in the public mind and media than a thousand camp-ground signs and placards that say the same thing.

Wow, Its as if having a political party in federal politics is more effective than a leaderless movement that walks around downtown cores with signs, shouting slogans and snarling traffic.

I wonder if Canada's universal healthcare, regulated banking industry and workers rights benefited from this whole "political party thing."

/Just musing

//terribly sorry if I thread-jacked

Get Lost: And why did Kanadians vote in republicans for a majority? You is Americas hat, indeed. Or is that Touque?

Because the Liberal party imploded and have been having their "Kerry" / "McCain" moment for nearly a bloody decade.

Watchtower's Fiction Editor: One swear-loaded comment from an elected center-left politician who's noticed that things are going completely haywire in his country is apparantly more powerful in the public mind and media than a thousand camp-ground signs and placards that say the same thing.

Wow, Its as if having a political party in federal politics is more effective than a leaderless movement that walks around downtown cores with signs, shouting slogans and snarling traffic.

I wonder if Canada's universal healthcare, regulated banking industry and workers rights benefited from this whole "political party thing."

/Just musing

//terribly sorry if I thread-jacked

You wonder if a system of government that's been in place and has been refined/progressed over more than a century has had more impact on public policy than a movement that's 60 days old? That seems like a rather silly thing to wonder.

When asked for comment, the honourable member of parliament Pierre Poilievre told reporters, "Fark you guys"

apoptotic: Watchtower's Fiction Editor: One swear-loaded comment from an elected center-left politician who's noticed that things are going completely haywire in his country is apparantly more powerful in the public mind and media than a thousand camp-ground signs and placards that say the same thing.

Wow, Its as if having a political party in federal politics is more effective than a leaderless movement that walks around downtown cores with signs, shouting slogans and snarling traffic.

I wonder if Canada's universal healthcare, regulated banking industry and workers rights benefited from this whole "political party thing."

/Just musing

//terribly sorry if I thread-jacked

You wonder if a system of government that's been in place and has been refined/progressed over more than a century has had more impact on public policy than a movement that's 60 days old? That seems like a rather silly thing to wonder.

No I don't. You've completely ignored and/or missed my point.
If OWS does 'progress' it could become a political party like the NDP, which is exactly what I want to see happen and should happen. Impact on policy can be increased by time, but much more by form. The OWS needs a national political platform, something which many of its participants refuse to accept because such would put the movement in "The System (Man!)"

Politicians get into debates and sway narratives by representing their views in the public sphere. OWS needs to get cracking on that if they want their message to be more than just a shiny distracting object for the freepers to boo at.

Watchtower's Fiction Editor:
If OWS does 'progress' it could become a political party like the NDP, which is exactly what I want to see happen and should happen. Impact on policy can be increased by time, but much more by form. The OWS needs a national political platform, something which many of its participants refuse to accept because such would put the movement in "The System (Man!)"

Politicians get into debates and sway narratives by representing their views in the public sphere. OWS needs to get cracking on that if they want their message to be more than just a shiny distracting object for the freepers to boo at.

The NDP was able to gradually, over a very long time, build momentum because we have public campaign financing (soon to be past tense) and a multi-party parliamentary system has often relied on coalitions between parties, two things the US doesn't have. They do have their roots in the workers' rights movement, as the predecessor to the NDP was the New Party, the brainchild of unions and the left. However, since the NDP's inception in 1961 they have never been in power federally, and unfortunately even though they're now the Official Opposition they still have zero power in the federal government, other than to draw the public's attention to the ruling Conservative party's antics.

As far as universal healthcare goes, it took 31 years from the time the first provincial bill passed (in Alberta, it was repealed when the party that passed it lost the next election. BC had a similar issue, and the first law that stuck was in Saskatchewan 11 years later) until the time that the federal government instituted it nationally, and another 18 years before user fees and extra billing were prohibited.

When it comes to our more stable banking industry, the roots go back even farther. The first banks here were established and operated under British rules, and our Constitution spells out that the federal government has jurisdiction over the banking industry. It's not so much that the Canadian government created more sensible rules than other countries, it's that we didn't remove those rules when other countries (US and Britain, for example) did. While the NDP was on the right side of history in resisting deregulation, it was the Liberals that were in power at the time.

What I'm saying is that the NDP formed and operate under a markedly different socioeconomic and political climate, the changes they helped usher in took many decades, and even now there are Canadians that don't take them any more seriously than some Americans take OWS. I know there's a natural instinct to look at a movement and think "that's great, but what's next? what are you actually going to do?", but I don't think that the NDP is the model to build on. The Tea Party has already shown how a movement can start out going gangbusters and organize politically, and then (even with corporate backing) start to fall apart and be marginalized when they don't accomplish everything they want to immediately. I think if OWS went the same route, we'd see essentially the same result. The two party system is so entrenched in the US that I think it's more realistic for OWS to evolve into a think-tank/watchdog type organization if they want to have influence in more than the short term.

apoptotic: The NDP was able to gradually, over a very long time, build momentum because we have public campaign financing (soon to be past tense) and a multi-party parliamentary system has often relied on coalitions between parties, two things the US doesn't have. They do have their roots in the workers' rights movement, as the predecessor to the NDP was the New Party, the brainchild of unions and the left. However, since the NDP's inception in 1961 they have never been in power federally, and unfortunately even though they're now the Official Opposition they still have zero power in the federal government, other than to draw the public's attention to the ruling Conservative party's antics.

As far as universal healthcare goes, it took 31 years from the time the first provincial bill passed (in Alberta, it was repealed when the party that passed it lost the next election. BC had a similar issue, and the first law that stuck was in Saskatchewan 11 years later) until the time that the federal government instituted it nationally, and another 18 years before user fees and extra billing were prohibited.

When it comes to our more stable banking industry, the roots go back even farther. The first banks here were established and operated under British rules, and our Constitution spells out that the federal government has jurisdiction over the banking industry. It's not so much that the Canadian government created more sensible rules than other countries, it's that we didn't remove those rules when other countries (US and Britain, for example) did. While the NDP was on the right side of history in resisting deregulation, it was the Liberals that were in power at the time.

What I'm saying is that the NDP formed and operate under a markedly different socioeconomic and political climate, the changes they helped usher in took many decades, and even now there are Canadians that don't take them any more seriously than some Americans take OWS. I know there's a natural instinct to look at a movement and think "that's great, but what's next? what are you actually going to do?", but I don't think that the NDP is the model to build on. The Tea Party has already shown how a movement can start out going gangbusters and organize politically, and then (even with corporate backing) start to fall apart and be marginalized when they don't accomplish everything they want to immediately. I think if OWS went the same route, we'd see essentially the same result. The two party system is so entrenched in the US that I think it's more realistic for OWS to evolve into a think-tank/watchdog type organization if they want to have influence in more than the short term.

Drawing attention to Harper's agenda is enough for the opposition to do, even if this current surge in the NDP is just an an anomaly brought on by Quebecois disapointment with the Bloc, or an identity crisis in the Liberal Party, or what have you. I also appreciate that Jack's successor has a difficult boat to steer, and I know that the party absolutely reviled by many. Par for course. Who cares how strong they are as long as they are trying to balance the scales. I know full well that the NDP didn't coalesce overnight either. Simply having a vocal opposition brings the consequences of ending or curtailing social programs into the public sphere in a way American public discourse has in painfully small doses. Some of thier ideas lack pragmatism, but the NDP and Liberals are a necessary counter-weight to the Conservatives, as would be likewise were the power roles reversed. Had we had more than a low-sixties percentile voter turnout, that might have happened.

Your post acknowledges that America dropped established, 'sensible' rules that were historically bequeathed to them, a massive contributing factor in the complete sell-off of the American middle class we're watching from next door. There is a massive swath of people who are disenfranchised as they've ever been, but I would argue that "tearing the whole thing down" as Ive read in many other posts, blogs and articles, is lot more difficult than planting the seeds for another political agency, tradition be damned.

Watchdog or political party, all I'm saying is that the OWS has to coalesce into more than it what it is, even if it takes another fifty years to become anything at all. I know it wont be an American NDP or Liberal or Labour Party, obviously. it'll be its own creature and stumble often. But the seed for something has to be planted that isn't just a Hooverville renactment. Things get old faster than they used to, and too many people are riding on this. Patience for the long term, but quick to demonstrate that they are making further plans. Of some sort. They're in park right now, no pun intended.