Opinion: Canadian lawmaker insults rival on Twitter, then forced to apologize
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We take a break from our regularly scheduled U.S. politics to bring you this (not) very important bulletin:
A Canadian lawmaker insulted a rival member of the Parliament on Twitter -- while the fellow was sitting at the same table.
‘Del Mastro should grow up (not out),’ wrote Michelle Simson, a Liberal legislator, on her Twitter profile, which has 484 followers.
Mastro, a Conservative who Reuters describes as ‘not slim,’ apparently saw the message during the meeting.
Because, well, you know, anyone in the world can see Twitter (except maybe China and North Korea), including colleagues sitting at the very same table.
Reuters writes:
[Mastro] stood up in the House of Commons in front of hundreds of legislators to demand Simson say she was sorry. ‘I apologize that I’m not perfect and perhaps my stature doesn’t meet the criteria that some members of the House might set but I have actually battled that problem since birth,’ he said. Simson then apologized publicly, saying she had been wrong.
Maybe Simson will get a boost in Twitter followers from this Canadian kerfuffle. She’s actually pretty funny and makes occasional references to ‘The Simpsons’ (not kidding).
We wish the senators and representatives in our Congress would take a page from Simson’s book and drop more off-the-cuff nuggets onto their Twitter feeds. U.S. politicians -- active ones, not Sarah Palin, who prefers Facebook -- are just so boring.
-- Mark Milian
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Photo credits: House of Commons