Zamboni man gets political after face-off with the law
SCRAPE WITH THE LAW — Saanich North and Islands MLA Gary Holman helped break the ice in the legislature by welcoming one of his more famous constituents to the political arena.
Central Saanich farmer Marko Kardum made national headlines last month by using his personal Zamboni machine to clear the snow from a residential street so that his aunt could get out of her driveway. Everything went smoothly until police stopped Kardum and escorted his uninsured Zamboni back to the farm.
The 32-year-old escaped without a ticket, and received … um … a flood of positive publicity for the unique way in which he tried to help his neighbors.
“I know that most of us in this house probably own a Zamboni, but not many of us have volunteered to help out our road crews,” Holman said. “Mr. Kardum represents the spirit of community volunteerism in the most Canadian ways possible.” GREGOR THE JAYBIRD — Energy Minister Bill Bennett adopted the mining industry’s “if it weren’t for mining … ” mantra at a luncheon speech to the industry in Victoria, and put a novel twist on it.
The refrain usually includes cars, wiring, appliances and an infinite number of other features of modern-day life that exist courtesy of mining. Bennett dismissed people who think of mining only as “big ugly holes in the ground” that are a threat to the environment.
And he zoomed in on one presumed member of that group: Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson.
“What is the relevance of mining to the mayor of Vancouver?” he asked rhetorically.
“They’d all be negative jaybirds sitting outside on the lawn if it weren’t for mining.
“People love electric cars. They don’t exist without the mining industry.
“If Gregor were here he might say: ‘Yeah, but I ride a bike, or walk.’
“And I’d probably say, ‘Well Gregor, you’d be naked as a jaybird sitting outside of city hall … without mining.’ ”
The imaginary but fascinating conversation tailed off at that point.
And by the way, there’d be no city hall without mining, either. NASCAR PALS? — The more he affirmed it, the more you wondered. Retiring Liberal MLA Don McRae noted the fond memories he will have of the job, some of which involved NDP MLA Leonard Krog.
“One of the things I will indeed miss — other than, actually, as we go the speed limit north, to our respective communities, on Thursday afternoon, he in his vehicle and me in mine, waving at each other occasionally, always going the speed limit — are his stories in the legislature.” JP AND ME — After accusing the government of “jiggery-pokery” for almost two full terms, retiring NDP MLA Bill Routley stunned the legislature with a confession. “As this is my final speech, I must come clean. I must admit that as a teen, I did try some jiggery-pokery myself.
“I know it’s shocking, and yes, it’s true. … I did it, and I’m glad.” He didn’t go into details, but said “it gave me a context of what to avoid, what not to do… ”
Routley proudly noted that his signature phrase — which gets 190 hits when searched on the legislature website — has been adopted by others. Late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia accused his colleagues two years ago of “interpretive jiggery-pokery.”
And after eight years in office, Routley finally defined the phrase. “Dishonest manipulation … nonsense, akin to hocus-pocus, humbug, bambosh, baloney, bunkum, hogwash, flapdoodle, flim-flam, flumadiddle, rubbish, hooey, hot air, motor-mouthing or poppycock.”