I am a big supporter of Wayne’s [helping a little bit with constituency stuff] and have watched him with pride looking so capable and in control in reporters’ scrums and on topics that he likely never planned to be in charge of. What I like most of all is that in a position which carries a lot of secret power he lets people know he is trying to use the power in a fair, thoughtful way letting the process work in a democratic way as much as possible. Lest I be seen to be an aping Liberal lackie a la the tories preacher boy on the CBC TV panel, it is also good to see that he has stopped saying things like “sec-e-tary of aggyculture”. Good guy, works hard, learning lots. Just to make it further clear: Ron McKinley: good guy, works real hard, mumbles way too much.

Regardless of my opinion that the federal Liberals have done a downright awful job of governing this country and shown an overall lack of leadership and accountability, etc, etc, I also feel that Wayne Easter is a vast improvement over ol’ Larry MacAulay. Wayne seems pretty sharp (and I’m glad to know that my ears were not deceiving me re: “sec-e-tary of aggyculture”).

Wayne is highly regarded as a parliamentarian in Ottawa, and has an established reputation nationally. He works very hard, and can think on his feet. He is my MP, and I am extremely proud of him. How he will contend with the reactionary conservatism of John Ashcroft is anyone’s guess. But he won’t miss a trick.

If Wayne is as sharp as the previous posts attest, he must see that his use of “security certificates” is a violation of human rights. These documents allow police to take a person into custody without access to legal advice and without knowing the charges or evidence against her. The public, family and legal counsel have no access to the detainee, contrary to the fundamental legal principle of habeas corpus. Perhaps he is smart enough to understand the barbaric nature of this practice. We can only assume he doesn’t have the moral integrity to object.