Ottawa

Whose sovereignist is on first?

By Aaron Wherry

While the Prime Minister’s Office tries to explain the difference between Denis Lebel and Nycole Turmel, Pat Martin invokes the red-baiting days of yore.

“In my first life, ‘Are you or have you ever been a member of the communists?’” Mr. Martin said to The Hill Times. “That’s what this ridiculous thing is starting to remind me of…

“I came from B.C. where my union had a lot of communists in it, and I moved to Manitoba and I become the head of the Carpenters Union there right away and it was ‘Aw, he’s a communist that was parachuted in from B.C.,’ which was completely untrue and unfair because I went as far as forming the NDP caucus of the Carpenter’s Union in B.C. because I didn’t want to be associated with the reds,” he said. “This does smack of that, that Red-baiting thing that puts you in such an uncomfortable position,” Mr. Martin said.