National Post (National Edition)
A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF ‘BOZO ERUPTIONS’ IN CANADA
It is a surefire rule of politics that at any given moment, somewhere in Canada a bozo is about to erupt.
Just as a political campaign is looking to flip the script, or turn the corner, or recapture the narrative, some bozo will ruin it for them, prompting damage control, tearful apologies, or, in the most severe cases, a resignation.
Even the prime minister is not immune to this enduring custom of politics. In 2014, one of Justin Trudeau’s MPS was secretly recorded accusing the leader of a bozo eruption. Trudeau responded by calling the MP a good man whose frustrations were understandable.
John Mckay, the MP in question, may have been guilty of the first meta-eruption, since his own bozo eruption was an accusation of a bozo eruption.
Google trends pinpoint the Trudeau-mckay incident as the most highprofile usage of the term in Canadian history and it’s been widely used in Canadian politics for nearly 15 years.
But there may not have been bozo eruptions at all if not for Bill Clinton’s campaign in 1992 and a rapid response staffer who declared she was responsible for dealing with “bimbo eruptions.” That phrase rattled around political circles for a decade until it was adapted by Stephen Harper’s 2004 campaign to describe the explosions of poor judgment happening among their candidates.
The bozos — the campaign staff said among themselves — just can’t stop erupting.
Conservative strategist Tom Flanagan, who worked for Harper in the early days, said he would love to claim credit for it, but admits only to happily adopting it. Ten years later, Flanagan ran Danielle Smith’s Wildrose campaign in the 2014 Alberta election, leading to one of the most memorable stretches of bozo eruptions in Canadian politics.
Pressed by reporters to explain gag orders on people who lost out in the party’s nomination contests, Smith accused the media of conflict of interest.
“I mean, you can continue, I suppose, hoping that one of them is going to have a bozo eruption, and I suppose maybe that’s what you’re upset about,” Smith said.
Two days later, Smith endured a bozo eruption that squashed her chances of governing Alberta.
DISTINCT FROM GAFFE
A bozo eruption is distinct from a gaffe, which has been famously defined by the journalist Michael Kinsley as when a politician accidentally tells the truth — “some obvious truth he isn’t supposed to say.”
Mitt Romney said his wife “drives a couple of Cadillacs,” in a gaffe for the ages. Romney is very, very rich but politics requires that he pretend not to be. The admission that, when he’s not running for president, he’s cruising around in Cadillacs was an episode of accidental truthtelling that sparked days of damage control.
Romney got mixed up trying to make a conventional politician’s boast — “I love American cars” — and turned it into a controversy.
A bozo eruption can be a gaffe, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be. It can be a mistaken, or simply stupid, comment and it’s often said in the heat of the moment, when time for reflection is short.
Etymology dictionaries trace bozo back to the Spanish word “bozal,” which refers to a “low IQ male” and possibly has some roots in the slave trade. Those sinister origins were lightened by Bozo the Clown, a global phenomenon and selfproclaimed “world’s most famous clown.” Nowadays the word is more clown than bozal, but a bozo can still be a dimwit, albeit a harmless or entertaining one.
Call a close friend or family member a bozo and they won’t be delighted, but it’s not going to start a fight because, deep down, we understand that we’re all bozos every now and then. A politician, though, lives in a permanent state of selfdenial because acting like a normal human lunkhead for even a moment can sink a career. Politicians can hear their inner bozo as it rumbles inside of them like distant thunder and they’ll do everything they can to suppress it.
Some politicians have been at it so long they’ve all but conquered their inner bozo. Alberta, the spiritual home of the bozo eruption, now sees two intelligent and disciplined politicians facing off against each other — Rachel Notley and Jason Kenney — who are skilled bozo-suppressors.
Although “bozo” is clear, the dictionary separates “eruptions” into two categories: first, the volcanic lava that bursts forth from a volcano, but also a spot or rash that spreads suddenly on the skin. In “bozo eruption,” both meanings merge into a violent ejection of idiocy that is painful and irritating for its subject.
And, like the other eruptions, the moment will pass but its destructive consequences linger.
CRUEL TWIST
It was a cruel twist for Danielle Smith, who popularized the term and then suffered the definitive bozo eruption just days later.
During the wild Albertan election campaign of 2012, Smith was defending her party’s “good conduct bonds” when she lectured the media on hoping for bozo eruptions. Smith wanted a big tent and she was determined that her party’s heated nomination battles wouldn’t produce a bunch of scorned losers and bitter critics to be quoted in the newspapers. For insurance, the party held on to the losing candidates’ $1,000 deposit until after the election. To paraphrase Lyndon Johnson: better to have them inside the big tent pissing out, than outside the big tent pissing in.
But when Smith accused the media of hoping for bozo eruptions she was mostly right. An accidental comment may not best represent a person’s true self, but Smith knew that gaffes are irresistible fluorescent fishing lures for journalists.
The good conduct bonds, unfortunately for the Wildrose Party, did not work retroactively. Two days after the bozo eruption press conference, a candidate’s six-year-old blog post was unearthed declaring that all gays were destined for a “lake of fire.”
With a week to go before election day, Smith wouldn’t rebuke her candidate, saying the party “accepts a wide range of views.” It may have cost her the election. Alison Redford’s Progressive Conservatives won an improbable majority despite late polling suggesting the Wildrose Party would form government.
Last December, Kenney reflected on the history of Wildrose bozo eruptions and declared them a thing of the past. He would institute a rigorous screening process and turf candidates who “advocated truly hateful views or who have serious reputational problems.” In February, he decided that former caucus member Derek Fildebrandt — who erupted regularly — wouldn’t be allowed back in the United Conservative Party.
Despite his best efforts, the NDP government checkmated Kenney with a new rule that publicly listed every candidate interested in a nomination contest. The move undercut the UCP vetting process and floated all the bozos to the surface, leading to a summer of embarrassing news reports.
An Alberta election looms in May and a federal election is scheduled for next October.
The bozos will almost certainly have the last laugh.
WHEN SMITH ACCUSED THE MEDIA OF HOPING FOR BOZO ERUPTIONS SHE WAS MOSTLY RIGHT. AN ACCIDENTAL COMMENT MAY NOT BEST REPRESENT A PERSON’S TRUE SELF, BUT SMITH KNEW THAT GAFFES ARE IRRESISTIBLE FLUORESCENT FISHING LURES FOR JOURNALISTS.