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Conservative MP Keddy shows true colours with “no-good bastards” remark

Published on November 24, 2009

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OTTAWA – The Harper Conservatives continue to demonstrate contempt for the unemployed and homeless, this time through MP Gerald Keddy’s portrayal of Haligonians as “no-good bastards,” Liberal MPs said today.

“Many homeless people suffer from mental health issues, including addiction – they deserve our compassion, not our contempt,” said Kings-Hants MP Scott Brison. “Mr. Keddy’s comment is just the latest indication of this government’s disdain for the homeless, the unemployed and even Atlantic Canadians. When will they stop attacking the people they represent?”

In responding to a media inquiry Monday about migrant labourers working at Christmas tree operations, Mr. Keddy said: “Nova Scotians won’t do it — all those no-good bastards sitting on the sidewalk in Halifax that can’t get work.” (The Chronicle-Herald, Nov. 24, 2009)

In 2002, Stephen Harper said in reference to Atlantic Canada: "There is a dependence in the region that breeds a culture of defeatism," (CBC News, May 30). And he once said in a Montreal speech: “In terms of the unemployed ... don't feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don't feel bad about it themselves, as long as they’re receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance.”

In 2002, when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was running for the leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, he pledged to throw homeless people in prison.

Liberal Critic for Human Resources and Skills Development and Nova Scotia MP Mike Savage said Mr. Keddy’s heartless comment comes just as the number of Canadians forced onto jobless benefits jumped 7.1 percent. It also comes on the heels of a report from Food Banks Canada showing that nearly 800,000 Canadians – about the equivalent of New Brunswick’s population – visited their local food bank in March.

This is an 18 percent increase from the same month a year earlier – which represents the largest ever year-over-year increase in food bank use on record.

“Calling the people of my province ‘no-good bastards’ is a slap in the face from an MP whose neglect of this region has seen unemployment rise to nearly 10 percent,” said Mr. Savage. “While he’s content to insult Nova Scotians, his government has done nothing to create new long-term job opportunities that could help the less fortunate.”

Halifax West MP Geoff Regan said this lack of compassion for the homeless – particularly in the middle of a harsh economic downturn – is hard to accept from a member of the federal government.

“Mr. Keddy can apologize all he wants, but the people of Nova Scotia have now seen his true colours,” said Mr. Regan.

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