Of all the ways to change careers, I’m sure Bill Bennett wouldn’t have chosen this. The MLA for East Kootenay (you didn’t think THAT Bill Bennett, did you?) was fired this week as minister of state for mines because he spoke too quick. Or rather he wrote too quick, which is the same thing with this new-fangled technology. Bennett got a little too big for his britches when he went up against a member of the Fernie Rod and Gun Club (no one in the Elk Valley is surprised the FRGC has dragged down an MLA) over a local issue.
Frustrated, one may presume, Bennett fired off a flaming e-mail retort and before you can say ‘You’ve Got Mail’, his profane prose was delivered. By morning it was copied all over the province. Bennett said he regretted writing it moments after he sent it. And again when he lost his job over it. You can bet he isn’t alone. Who among us will cast the first stone on this? Who here has not returned e-mail while in a bad mood, or in an emotional state or while surly and drunk at 3 a.m.? The Kootenays are pretty well insulated from technological marvels like the Internet but come on, Bill. Everyone else in the world learned our email survival skills in 1995. Bill Bennett isn’t going to be the last politician slain for saying something dumb.
You’d have never heard of Okanagan-Shuswap MP Colin Mayes if it weren’t for some of the stupid things he said. But like a suicidal lemming, there he was in January going head over the side on another made for e-mail scandal. Poor guy. He’s got a buddy who likes to send off colour jokes to office e-mail accounts. Who doesn’t? Unfortunately for Colin, this friend sent him a joke about “Indians” that Colin thought was funny. And Colin just happens to chair a commons committee on native affairs. The story was reported widely by Ottawa media until they read the joke and realized there was nothing very offensive about Indians. It was quite unflattering about Members of Parliament. Which brings us to the last time you heard of Colin Mayes, when he advocated sending journalists to jail when they get their stories wrong. How do you like them now, Colin?
But there is good news for you fellows. They’ve invented new “recallable” email formats. You can send all the profane rants you want. If you get a case of e-mail regret you can change that email right in the recipients’ e-mail box. Take back everything you said. But when it comes to the journalists… you’re on your own.
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