Crooked in the Commons

Donald Trump has slung the “c-word” — crooked — daily at his opponent, Hillary Clinton, and the media. But the buzzword of this U.S. election campaign has been surprisingly often heard in the halls of Canada’s Parliament. The National Post’s Douglas Quan dug through records and found no shortage of examples of decorum-challenged ministers and MPs accusing others of crookedness.

MAY 26, 1908

During a debate on changes to the Criminal Code, Frederick Borden (Liberal), the militia and defence minister, suggested his opponent, George Foster (Conservative), had abused his position to pocket a financial reward from a company. “The hon. gentleman has two peculiarities at least. One is that he cannot see any good in anybody but himself, and he is incapable of seeing any harm in himself. He is mentally crooked, as well as morally crooked,” Borden charged. Knowing he had crossed a line, he immediately amended his statement, saying Foster was not crooked “in a parliamentary sense,” but might possibly be “in a Pickwickian sense.”

MARCH 4, 1932

Peter Heenan (Liberal), pictured above, accused the Conservative government of not applying fair-wage laws to private contractors. “I am elected to try to keep my hon. friend straight,” he said, referring to Robert Manion, the minister of railways and canals. In a classic playground tit-for-tat, Manion replied: “You are too busy trying to be crooked yourself, to keep anybody else straight.”

JAN. 27, 1949

James Sinclair (Liberal) blasted his opponent, Rodney Young (Co-operative Commonwealth Federation), for telling a newspaper Canadians had sent a “bunch of crooks” to Parliament. While it’s easy to ignore such attacks from “crackpots” and “communists,” they cannot be ignored when made by a member of Parliament, he said. “I now challenge the member … to stand up here before his peers and name specifically the members who, he charges, are crooks; to prove his charges, and, if he fails in those charges, to … resign his seat.” In a sharp comeback, Young said: “I did not expect that the hon. member concerned would consider the cap fitted him, but apparently he does.”

JUNE 14, 1963

As often as parliamentarians loved to lob the c-word, they just as often had to apologize — reluctantly — for it, as was the case with George Nowlan (Progressive Conservative). “Last night during the course of some freewheeling remarks following the budget speech … I used the word, so I am told, ‘crook,’ ‘crooked’ or ‘crooks,’ ” he said. “Not having Hansard in front of me … I am not certain which it was. In any event it was contrary to the rules, and I assure the House that it was entirely inadvertent.”

DEC. 22, 1982

In the parliamentary equivalent of tattling to a teacher, Jim Fleming (Liberal), minister of state for multiculturalism, turned to the Commons speaker to reprimand the opposition leader, Joe Clark (Progressive Conservative), pictured above, for calling him and another minister crooked. Erik Nielsen, the Progressive Conservative House leader, jumped to Clark’s defence, saying, “the whole cabinet is as crooked as a dog’s hind leg.” Clark then clarified that what he had said was the justice minister was “as crooked as” Fleming and that Fleming “can decide for himself … whether that is an insult or not.”

JUNE 28, 2005

While there is no shortage of examples of parliamentarians accusing each other of being “crooked,” saying someone is an outright “crook” is rare. But that happened during the final reading of the controversial bill allowing same-sex marriage. “I noticed earlier in the debate that parties were being painted with different names,” said Derek Lee (Liberal). “I heard one party being painted as separatists, another party being painted as socialists and another party being painted as Neanderthals. I am gratified that my party has managed to cling to its name, Liberal.” To which Andrew Scheer (Conservative), pictured below, replied: “You’re crooks.”

FEB. 3, 2015

Careful not to label prime minister Stephen Harper a crook, Charlie Angus (NDP) chose to apply the label to everyone in his circle. He mentioned Arthur Porter, former head of Canada’s security watchdog who was accused of fraud; Mike Duffy, the senator accused of fraud and bribery, but was later acquitted; and Bruce Carson, Harper’s former adviser who had fraud convictions. “Ladies and gentlemen back home should ask themselves how a convicted fraud artist could get past all the security checks to be the prime minister’s inner adviser. The prime minister likes hanging out with crooks.”