It is two elections and almost four years since agriculture minister Gerry Ritz made his infamous joke during the listeria public health crisis, and it still sometimes comes back to haunt him.
In 2008 just before the election campaign, Canadians began dying because of tainted processed meat from a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto and the government went into crisis management.
Ritz was the minister in charge and during one of the supposedly private conference calls with agriculture, health and inspection officials, he wanted to make a point about the frustration of new information dribbling out every day.
Read Also
Growth plates are instrumental in shaping a horse’s life
Young horse training plans and workloads must match their skeletal development. Failing to plan around growth plates can create lifelong physical problems.
“It is a death of a thousand cuts, or should I say cold cuts,” he quipped.
It would have drawn a laugh in many rural bars across the Prairies, but someone on the line was offended and saw an opportunity.
During the campaign, someone leaked the comment and it became a minor storm and public relations disaster for the Conservatives.
Harper won another minority government, Ritz survived and was reappointed to cabinet as agriculture minister.
Fast forward to the budget cuts of 2012, with details dribbling out every day, and potentially affected public servants and Canadians who use their public services probably feeling as frustrated as Ritz was that day.
New Democratic Party leader Thomas Mulcair couldn’t resist.
Asked about the effects of thousands of civil service cuts in the Ottawa region April 30, he noted that the budget included more than $50 million of cuts in what he called “food inspections” (the government would beg to differ).
“This is the same government that presided over the death of Canadians in the listeriosis scandal,” he said.
“The minister who joked about it, talking about death by a thousand cold cuts, is still sitting there as minister. That’s the Conservative problem.”
Cuts will hurt public services and the economy of the Ottawa region, said Mulcair.
And memories of Ritz’s “sense of humour” live on in the political memory of political Ottawa.
