Friday, May 12, 2006

Political Advice for MP's: Always seek to expose the story, never become the story

Skeena's MP, Nathan Cullen has gotten himself into a bit of a pickle over his comments regarding the RCMP and that investigation into the shooting of a Houston man while in RCMP custody.

Cullen apologized on CKNW on Thursday night over his comments that have made him the news, rather than the story that he was trying to bring to the public's attention.

By suggesting that he was afraid of taking on the RCMP on the issue, he was kind of suggesting we live in some kind of quasi police state, where the police would hold grudges and are not considered accountable.

It's not really the way it is and he should have been more temperate in his statements.

More importantly he should have better presented his concerns, the public does need to know what happened in Houston that night, Cullen who is actually a pretty good MP and fairly pro active for his riding, dropped the ball badly in this instance.

It's the duty of any MP to take up the cause of his constituents, by redirecting the debate on this issue Cullen did not do his job as an MP, instead he sidetracked an important local issue by taking a personal concern (and one without much basis to it) and making it the story, not the issue that was being brought to the public's concern.

Perhaps with his apology, the real issue of the investigation into the night's events can get back on track. He is right on one aspect of the events that night, it is taking a rather long time to come to some kind of closure on the incident.

It's a concern that got lost in the shuffle with his off the cuff remarks regarding his interpretation of policing in the North West.

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