Huge difference, David

In his final scrum, Paul Oram’s screed against the nasty, nasty media — by which he means the CBC — does not go unchallenged. The consequences are hilarious:

COCHRANE: Doesn’t that cut both ways? Do you read what you and your cabinet colleagues and your caucus colleagues say about other politicians in Hansard? Some of the nastiest comments I’ve seen in my twelve years of politics have happened inside that chamber, where the media is not allowed to go. So you want to talk about a civil tone in politics and how the media is hurting peoples’ families, don’t politicians have to look at how they treat each other, and how they treat their families, too?

ORAM: Huge difference, David, in what happens inside that House and what happens on the airwaves when families can listen to it and watch it, you know, and —

COCHRANE: It’s broadcast live on TV

ORAM: — and the fact of the matter is that everyone knows what happens in the House of Assembly, and it’s a tradition, it’s always been, the heckling and things like that. We also know that at the end of the day politicians walk across the corridor and we shake hands and it’s just the reality of it. And to even suggest that that is even close to what we’ve seen in the media in the last little while, is absolutely silly, you know.

COCHRANE: You have a double standard?

ORAM: No it’s not a double standard.

COCHRANE: How is it not a double standard?

ORAM: It’s not a double standard, David.

COCHRANE: I’ve even here had the Premier say things about Lorraine Michael that are far worse than anything a reporter has ever said about you.

ORAM: Well, I can tell you right now, that from my family’s perspective, that what they have seen, and I can speak for my family, what they have seen said is what they see in the media. It’s not what they see in the House of Assembly. And they watch the House of Assembly as well. But what they see in the media is what really hurts them.

For the benefit of the Oram family, here are some classic moments in recent House of Assembly history which they may have missed, and which constitute a “huge difference” from what the meanies in the media have said about various Orams:

April 27, 2004:

CHAIR: Order, please!

MR. T. MARSHALL: I say the same thing to the hon. member there. Since we have been here that is all we hear from you guys over there, nothing but personal attacks. Come on! We are here to do the business of the Province. We are here to do the business of this place. Come on, raise the tone of debate.

CHAIR: Order, please!

MR. T. MARSHALL: Stop this yelling and screaming and nattering over there. You have been nattering since the day we got here. You are nothing but nattering naysayers of negativism.

May 18, 2004:

MR. PARSONS: Mr. Speaker, we are all aware - and you are certainly aware - that whether or not the use of a particular word is or is not unparliamentary can vary from time to time, depending upon the circumstances, the tone that was used at the time that it was uttered. I think it is quite clear, Mr. Speaker, that the use of the words - I have checked in Beauchesne here, I do not see the specific words two-faced here, but there are certainly lots of incidents in Beauchesne where that type of wording, saying that someone’s actions and behaviour is two-faced, certainly causes a negative connotation and is unparliamentary. I think the Premier should withdraw that remark as being unparliamentary.

PREMIER WILLIAMS: I actually withdraw that remark, Mr. Speaker, that the Leader of the Opposition is, in fact, no-faced.

April 20, 2005:

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Now, having said that, there is a double standard. What happened in your Cabinet when things were discussed, when your brother was a negotiator for CUPE? What about when things were discussed concerning Abitibi and forestry, when your brother or brothers were working with that organization? What happened when the hon. gentleman from Twillingate & Fogo was Minister of Education and his good wife was a teacher, and he did allocations? What happened there?

May 1, 2006:

MR. TAYLOR: I say to the Member for Grand Falls-Buchans, if she did work for every year, seven years, what did she do? Send the crew in? What, did she send her brother in with a wheelbarrow and a shovel, Mr. Speaker? That must have been what she did, because over seven years you would think that she would have had most of the work done, if that is it. She didn’t spend it on the Trans-Canada in that district, because if she did, the number one priority -

May 2, 2006:

CHAIR: Order, please!

MR. SULLIVAN: A point of order.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. RIDEOUT: Oh, what an idiot!

CHAIR: Order, please!

May 9, 2006:

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Speaker, it seems to me that the Leader of the Opposition has developed an awful thin skin over recent days. You cannot say a thing to him. You cannot remind him that he is whistling past a graveyard, that the sky is not falling, as he hopes it is. When you remind him of that: Oh, you are attacking him personally, you are upsetting his feelings. I called him a sooky baby the other night, Mr. Speaker, he just about hit the ceiling. The hon. Leader of the Opposition from time to time acts like a sook, asks questions like a sook, and when he asks questions like a sook, he will be responded to like a sook.

May 18, 2006:

MR. WISEMAN: It is one thing to accuse us of not understanding, but to take the House out of order, no respect for the Chair, and be a sook in the process -

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: - because she does not want to be quoted out of context.

I won’t read the rest of the garbage that she said, but I want to conclude by reading the last point that she made -

November 20, 2006:

MR. JOYCE: (Inaudible).

MR. T. MARSHALL: Mr. Speaker, the hon. the Member for the Bay of Islands is nattering over there. I think someone should tell him to go drive the fire truck down in Humber Arm himself.

December 11, 2006:

MR. HICKEY: (Inaudible).

MR. JOYCE: I say to the Minister of Transportation and Works, you cannot tell me to shut up. I am in no meeting where you can tell me to shut up. You cannot do it. I am in this House of Assembly. I am going to speak in this House of Assembly and you cannot tell me to shut up.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

May 17, 2007:

MR. RIDEOUT: I would not ask the hon. gentleman for fresh air, Madam Chair, let alone leave. If I do not have the ability to suck it in myself, I would not ask the hon. gentleman for it. He got sooky with me a couple of days ago because I accused him of interrupting during Question Period. Well, it was not him at all, I apologize. I finally have an opportunity to apologize. It was the Member for Cartwright-L’Anse au Clair, but somehow or another I am sure that in the background that I heard this gruffly, melodious voice that I can only associate with the hon. gentleman from Bay of Islands. It was not a singsong, I can tell you, but it was enough to trigger, in my memory, that it was him.

May 31, 2007:

MR. JOYCE: (Inaudible).

MR. T. MARSHALL: Mr. Speaker, would you get something from Beauchesne and throw it at the Member for the Bay of Islands?

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. T. MARSHALL: Mr. Speaker, we have a company in my district called 3 T’s. Here we have the 3 N’s: the nattering nabob of negativism.