Parrish the thought

Carolyn Parrish (Ind. MP-Mississauga, Erindale) has announced that she will not run in the next federal election. Ms. Parrish will begin granting interviews about her decision this Friday. I really hope she is not ill or something.

I should preface this next bit by stating that I would definitely vote for Carolyn if I lived in her riding. I applaud her campaign against the invasion of Iraq, her work against Star Wars/BMD and for raising awareness about human rights abuses (e.g. "The Wall"). That said, it seems a shame that many will remember Carolyn's time in parliament for her "outbursts" and for talking out of school, as it were. I wish she had found a more constructive way to express her (justifiable) displeasure. When you call Americans "bastards" for the decision to invade Iraq, or "coalition of the idiots" for BMD, nobody remembers the rationale; only the "bastards" and "idiots" persist in the leaky-colander that is the 24h newstainment cycle.

Now, having said that, I couldn't have been prouder of Ms. Parrish's appearance on CNN, last December. She played it totally cool and still got her point across. You can read the transcript of her interview with Wolf "Can we say it's a crisis?" Blitzer and Tucker-the-bowtie, or you can treat yourself to the video of the exchange here (scroll down and click "Play Video" to watch the clip).

Bravo, Ms. Parrish. I wish you all the best :)