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May 29, 2009

He said “tar baby”? Who else did?

Today in the house, Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre said,

“On that side of the House, they have the man who fathered the carbon tax, put it up for adoption to his predecessor and now wants a paternity test to prove the tar baby was never his in the first place”

This caused a stir on the opposition benches and caused Liberal House leader Ralph Goodale to ask Poilievre to withdraw and deemed the term “racist”.

Here are some recent uses of the term by journalists including Chantal Hebert.

“The nasty legal squabble over who owns the cash-strapped Phoenix Coyotes and whether they can relocate to Hamilton is hardly the first such tar baby the NHL has dealt with, and it won’t be the last.” (John Mackinnon, Edmonton Journal, May 18, 2009).

“It’s a Tory/Liberal tar baby and I’ve lost faith that they can do anything but keep changing the minister and pretend everything’s under control.” (Ralph Surette, Halifax Chronicle Herald, February 14, 2009).

“At this stage, the McTeague bill looks more like a Liberal tar baby than a party brainchild.” (Chantal Hebert, The Toronto Star, March 12, 2008).

“Along the way, Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois has got herself in trouble with the usual suspects as she fumbles with the language tar baby and prepares for one of those gawdawful national council meetings the PQ caribous use to exasperate and humiliate the unfortunate chief of the moment.” (Norman Webster, Montreal Gazette, February 17, 2008).

“Marois’s effort to shake off the referendum tar baby is good news…” (Editorial, Cynical PQ bid to rebrand party, The Toronto Star, Friday, March 7, 2008).

“Same-sex marriage has generally been treated like a political tar baby over the past few years, with most parties reluctant to whip up highly sensitive arguments touching on religion and deeply rooted social values.” (Susan Delacourt, Martin could exploit gay-marriage gift, The Hamilton Spectator, Friday, December 10, 2004).

“Nobody is saying you toss over your U.S. relations. Of course you don’t. But it doesn’t mean to say you have to become slavishly connected like some kind of tar baby with them.” (Lloyd Axworthy, Canada’s new leader to improve U.S. ties, Detroit Free Press, Thursday, December 11, 2003).

h/t: David Akin

This entry was authored by Stephen Taylor at 03:05 PM | Tweet this | Add a comment

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David

Ralph Goodale should rethink this strategy. Not his finest hour. I cannot believe he is unaware of the context.

Liz J

Ralph is really in a state of extreme desperation, there are signs it's affecting his thought process.

File this under grasping at straws for something to be offended at. Truly pathetic.

jckirlan

Reminds me of the Peter McKay "Stick to your knitting" feigned outrage of the LIbs and Dippers.

Liz J

Yeah, that was an offense to women apparently, and when Peter alluded dogs were more loyal, in reference to his main squeeze betraying him was another pathetic display of fake outrage.

It will be interesting to see if this tar baby nonsense has a longer life than Ruby's nannygate fiasco.

Archie

Maybe Goodale should look up the tar baby in Wikipedia. As to some unmentionable liberals, it looks like their going to end up with egg on their faces. Why is it with the Liberal that they always want to make something into a race issue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_baby

batb

Oh, good G*d.

Too many thin-skinned idiots on the Opposition benches, not to mention illiterate numbskulls.

We're going to see more of these asinine accusations as literate commentators are tarred and feathered (am I allowed to say THAT?) by uneducated, uncouth, illiterate ignoramuses.

I occasionally get these kinds of reactions in a classroom. Case in point: When students aren't listening, I've said, "You're the loser for not listening as you might have this on a test next week."

The first time I said this, I got a chorus of "You just called us losers," said with venomous rage.

I had to explain to the class of grade 7/8 students that the expression "you're the loser for..." not being here, not being there, not listening, etc. doesn't mean "you're a loser."

They didn't know and were not able to make the distinction.

Have we got a train wreck hurtling down the track ...

terry1

Bat B....illiterate ignoramuses would indicate a group of tories to me. so what are you saying?

Robert McClelland

What exactly do you think you're going to accomplish by arguing that it's acceptable to use a racially charged term like this?

Stephen Taylor

I can't apologize for your poor reading comprehension.

Robert McClelland

That is exactly what you and the PMO are doing. By pushing these examples you're trying to make it seem like it's no big deal. The question is why when a simple, oops, my bad would suffice. Don't get me wrong. I love it that the party wants to die on this hill but it seems rather self defeating when everyone accepts that Pierre isn't the sharpest pencil in the box and would believe that he was ignorant of the racist overtones of the phrase.

paulsstuff

So it's a racially charged term, yet it's acceptable to have it on your blog? I refer to comment #6

http://myblahg.com/?p=1867 By the way, use your blos search feature for the term Tar Baby.

Liz J

Damn, you can't be serious. Tar baby is a racist term? You're way down the Br'er Rabbit hole on this one.

Would Goodale and Jennings ban the word "tar" altogether , it can have black connotations, it is black?

east of eden

It's not a racially-charged term. Stop trying to cause trouble where no trouble exists. I've heard black people use that term...and worse terms, to be honest. There is no way that these people meant it in a racist manner. People like yourself use the terms so frivolously that it has lost its meaning. I even know one black woman who was accused by another black woman of discriminating against her in a racist manner. See what I mean? It has become an all-purpose term which no longer means anything. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

batb

Re the train wreck hurtling down the track:

It would seem that Ralphie Goodale's in the engineer's seat and has actually just jumped the track.

Liz J

Yeah there's a problem for GrrrrrrRalphie here. He's such a brown noser to all his leader's, it's almost a brain free exercise for him. He's the one with the experience but he's acting like a student in Professor Iggy's class.

Pierre said nothing wrong, tar baby is a term for a sticky situation, it has nothing to do with race. Only the desperate Liberals could conjure up such a connotation.

Has anyone any recollection of any political party so desperate for power as the LPC in out entire history?

wilson

Iffy's new love affair with the Tar sands,
and the love child was a Tar baby.

'Canada caught on its own tar baby. Tar sand investments now a dead duck?'
http://oilsandstruth.org/canada-caught-its-own-...

wilson

.....This could make Canada a global tar baby.
Tar sands oil is the worst type of oil for the
atmosphere....

Sierra Club of Canada
October 4, 2006

wilson

oops forgot the link
http://www.oilsandsconsultations.gov.ab.ca/subm...

David

Nobody is forcing the world to buy our oil.

Bocanut

Does Ralph "AKA Fred Flintstone" Goodale's know that his histrionics are making everyone including his caucas laugh at him?
I've seen braying asses with more class.

paulsstuff

To be honest I've never heard that expression before and have no clue to it's meaning.

batb

paulsstuff, here's an explanation of "tar baby" that fits this bill:

Tar-Baby was a doll made of tar and turpentine, used to entrap Br'er Rabbit in the second of the Uncle Remus stories. The more that Br'er Rabbit fought the Tar-Baby, the more entangled he became. In contemporary usage, "tar baby" refers to any "sticky situation" that is only aggravated by additional contact. ...

It's a literary allusion, for crying out loud, completely free of racist overtones or undertones, unless you want to fabricate a racial subtext for it.

All Ralph Goodale has proven with this gaffe of his -- there's no gaffe on Pierre Poilievre's part -- is how illiterate and uncouth he is, and what a fast trigger finger he has when it comes to shooting down MPs on the CPC bench.

Using corks on the end of strings, however, isn't going to get him many notches on his gunslinger's belt.

Robert McClelland

"Senator John S. McCain offered an apology in Cedar Falls today after he used the word “tar-baby” in response to a rather arcane question from an Iowa voter about federal intervention in divorce and custody cases. The phrase is considered by some to be a racial epithet."
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/16/m...

"Gov. Mitt Romney has apologized for referring to the city's troubled highway commuter tunnel project as a "tar baby" during a fundraiser with Iowa Republicans, saying he did not know anyone would be offended by the term some consider a racial epithet."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/31/polit...

Even the dimwitted Republicans understand it's more than just a simple literary allusion.

kingston

Robert, your are so freaking reaching on this one. Is that the best the progressive left has to talk about, it is freaking obvious to everyone that has seen the clip is there is no racial aspect to his statement.

The Invisible Hand

Or, they understand that even though it is just a simple literary allusion, but they don't want to take the chance that idiots who trumpet their phony outrage and falsely claim that it has racial implications might cause them political damage.

Surecure

Look down at my list and you might see that this comes from all sides of the political spectrum. And here are a few more examples:

"By then, three out of every four barrels of oil produced in Canada will come from the tar sands. This could make Canada a global tar baby." - Stephen Hazell, Sierra Club of Canada

"I am not going to argue with you about the start of the war in Afghanistan. It is a tar baby that I would not have gotten us stuck onto." - Bill Hulet, Green Party candidate (July 19, 2008 blog comments on the Green Party website)

" If Campbell is returned we will be, like Bre’r Rabbit, stuck to the American Tar Baby. There is but one other choice, vote NDP." - Rafe Mair, Canadian broadcaster

"Rapidly but surely, Stockwell Day is becoming the tar baby of Canadian politics and is dragging a reluctant Preston Manning and the new Alliance Party into the tar pits with him." - Larry Zolf, CBC Politics

" What few people remember is that Jean Chretien handed him that particular tar baby, an order Mr. Manley could not countermand, and that as he spoke to reporters about it during the closing days of 1999, he was invariably in a vile mood." - Paul Wells,

east of eden

Have you ever noticed that the people who most loudly proclaim racism are white anglo-saxons? I think they're just trying to appear "inclusive" and, in doing so, create a problem where no problem exists. It's usually good old white charlatans who cry racism or human rights. The real victims of racism or discrimination usually have no voice and the outrageous white folks who talk about anti-racism and human rights are the same type who would not even shake hands with the real victims. Hypocrites and liars. Who do they think they're fooling? Certainly not the real victims.

Michael

"Surface Stations project, he is a legitimate scientist, a respected climatologist who is probably uninterested in seeing his reputation suffer by being observed in close proximity to what seems to be fast becoming a Climate Denialist tar-baby."

Who said that??
Big City Lib
http://bigcitylib.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archi...
Looks like we have returned to the Dion smear contoversy a minute.

bigcitylib

Anyone important asks, I will apologize for it.

Whats so hard about that?

kingston

BCL,, why should you apologize, was it your intent to use it as a racial slur, or did you use it in the context that most people understand it to be which is a situation that is hard to extract yourself from.

David

You are assuming that Goodale is important....

JDot

WTF, are you kidding me..

SMH...

paulsstuff

Stephen, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember any Liberal politician feigning outrage over this:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_zolf/archiv...

NovaDog

I felt sorry for Pierre, it was obvious he didn't has a clue what Goodale was going on about. It's been years since those racist's types of remarks have been used, mostly down in the Southern States, way before Pierre's birth. It's stupid that Goodale even brought this up, it reminds me of soldiers, with guns, in our cities.

Liz J

This has zero to do with race, it's a fairy tale for goodness sake. How the likes of goodale could even conjure up such nonsense is telling more about his mindset than anything else.

I hope the PC's go after the silly man on this. It's Goodale and company who have made the connection to racism that's NOT there. They have some explaining to do and fast.

You know, this has to be the most dumbfounding reaction to a statement ever.

NovaDog

I agree, I would suggest Goodale is in a sticky situation, maybe more than Br er Rabbit.

terry1

I don' think he is at all. John McCain apologized for use of the same words during the last election. Might be something to that don't you think?

NovaDog

John McCain is a Great war hero. He was intimated and apologized for something that didn't need it.

terry1

Nova dog...A great war hero gets intimidated? Give your head shake..he is simply a decent man who realized he made a mistake.

east of eden

You are the very first LIberal supporter I've ever heard to say one nice thing about McCain. The rest of your gang has called him every name under the sun.

Tory@York

Nice catch on Big City Lib, someone should point that out to him on his new post on Poilievres remarks.

Pat

What can you say..it's Ralphie. Don't be too hard to the pompous windbag, he's doing his best to do his worst. It's not his fault that he's dumber than a sack of hammers.

Anne in sw ON

This whole kerfuffle is the unfortunate result of the hijacking of certain words and phrases by interest groups who bastardize their original meaning to suit their own agendas. 'Tar baby' and 'gay' are prime examples. Anyone who dares to use the hijacked word or phrase to reflect anything other than the new meaning is criticized as racist or homophobic. Political correctness run amok.

Bruce

This proves yet again that the Liberals and their MSM enablers are idiots.

terry1

Stephen, you are getting as petty as the politicians with your stuff. Is that a hint you will run for the party leadership once you learn all the dirty stuff and cheap tricks? LOL

Surecure

And here are a few other people who have used the term:

- John Kerry (discussing John McCain during last year's election)
- David Reynolds (May 15 in the Augusta Free Press, a Progressive News service)
- American Senator Bob Corker (this year in discussing the AIG bailout)
- Ron Faucheux (US Democratic Party strategist in discussing the impeachment of Bill Clinton)
- Al Gore (in 1987 discussing military build up in the Persian Gulf)
- Arianna Huffington (Salon.com May 28, 2003 describing the Iraq War)
- the Center for Media and Democracy (April 3: "Alberta Lobbies for its Tar Baby")

terry1

Does that make it right?

EC

I think it just shows that the generally accepted definition of the expression is one that relates more to a sticky situation than a racial slur.

Surecure

Right? Wrong? The overwhelming majority of things in life simply are what they are.

It's human nature that if somebody wants something to be wrong, they will ALWAYS find a way to see it as wrong.

terry1

surecure...and therefore the reason for negative politicial advertising that suck some Canadians down the rat hole of Tory deceipt.

Surecure

Thank you for proving my point.

Jen

I guess GOODALE was angry at Polievere for insulting the 'OIL SANDS by calling it 'TAR BABY' when there is no TAR in the 'Oil Sands'

east of eden

I remember some years ago when Ralph Klein was accused of being racist against Aboriginal people...and then somebody pointed out the heritage of his wife. The ones who scream racism usually either don't know what they're talking about or they are overcompensating for their own prejudices. I thought it was very ironic that Mrs. Klein just happens to be Aboriginal. Talk about egg on the accusers' faces. I loved every second of that one.

George

"the man who fathered the carbon tax, put it up for adoption to his predecessor and now wants a paternity test to prove the tar baby was never his in the first place"

adoption of a tar baby? paternity test of a tar baby?
sounds like he's describing a baby that is dark skinned.

this is why it's racist... it's not TERRIBLE, but it's not appropriate either.

if the member doesn't apologize, fine, it's not a biggie.
it does, however, demonstrate his character and lack of class.

Why is it so hard to simply say "I apologize for comments that people may construe as racist"?
Oh, because a member of a different party is asking, and he doesn't want to look like he's taking orders.

GROW UP!

Richard Romano

Call yourself waaaambulance. As you can see, others have used the term freely without people like you screaming for a retraction.

You're invoking the racism here, not the Tories. Take your own advice, Grow up!