RON MACLEAN
Welcome back to a new season of House of Commons Night in Canada. I'm Ron Maclean here with Don Cherry, and Grapes, it looks like you waved a lot of red flags at a lot of bulls on the whole fighting and head shots issue. You're getting attacked from all directions.
DON CHERRY
It's my job: Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in the game o' hockey. But I want to leave that alone for a while...
RON MACLEAN
Good idea, maybe it'll be less radioactive...
DON CHERRY
...and talk about what's going on in Parliament that's also raising my blood pressure.
RON MACLEAN
What would that be? The season's only started there as well.
DON CHERRY
Yeah, I think Shanahan should be over at the Public Accounts Committee, banging a few heads together there, rather than trying to turn hockey into ping-pong.
RON MACLEAN
Not a good choice of words perhaps, but I don't think Brendan Shanahan has any jurisdiction outside the NHL. What's got up your nose this time?
DON CHERRY
The diving! It's just wrong! Here's a time I'm gonna say "puke" and not regret it. At the Public Accounts Committee meeting on Friday, the Conservative majority got away with making the meeting secret, and then when it was secret deciding not to study stuff the Auditor-General dug up like helicopter expense boondoggles, the fired integrity commissioner's half million bucks in hush money, and parliament renovation financial disasters, for which we're all paying of course.
RON MACLEAN
Why is this "diving?"
DON CHERRY
Because it's sneaky! The Public Accounts Committee is Parliament supervising public accounts. It's not the Private Accounts Committee, although I'd pay money to see that one. This is just a blatant attempt to sneak around the rules! They're gonna have the meeting off-camera because of national security or something? Give me a break! They've got something to hide.
RON MACLEAN
I think it's in camera....
DON CHERRY
Don't confuse me with foreign languages, you know I don't speak any...
RON MACLEAN
We know you don't speak French....
DON CHERRY
Kids, this is the kind of sneaky stuff we don't want in the game of parliamentary democracy, pretending to play by the rules and then sucker punching somebody... If you're gonna play the game, play it with honour.
RON MACLEAN
That's what Shanahan's doing, isn't it? He's letting everybody see the videos of the decisions he's making...
DON CHERRY
Yeak, OK. And by the way, I think Brendan Shanahan's a great guy, a real pro, I just happen to think he's marching to the wrong piper paying his tune, but he should take his video cameras into the off-camera sessions at the Public Accounts Committee and let everybody see how the Conservatives are really playing the game...
RON MACLEAN
How...
DON CHERRY
It's not like this is the first time. Harper took dives in 2008 and 2010, proroguing parliament to save his own ass....
RON MACLEAN
Don...
DON CHERRY
You're gonna tell me I'm using language I'm gonna regret, aren't you?
RON MACLEAN
I think the CBC might regret it...
DON CHERRY
The CBC should grow a pair! Sucking up to this government is not going to work! There's a long list of sneaky, weasel stuff this government has tried to pull off and nothing has changed in the new season except they've got a majority and will try to use it to gut the game of parliamentary democracy so Harper can pretend to be The Queen. The only thing Harper understands is The Code. The government thinks the rules of the game are for camouflage. This is why you need guys like Marty McSorley in Parliament, setting people straight!
RON MACLEAN
I thought you wanted Shanahan in Parliament.
DON CHERRY
Shanahan and McSorley, it's a team sport.
RON MACLEAN
I think we'd better leave it here, until we're back next time with the smoking-hot-under-the-collar Don Cherry on House of Commons Night in Canada.
DON CHERRY
You know, I hope the new Speaker is aggressive like Shanahan, send people a rock-hard message.
RON MACLEAN
I thought you were mad at Shanahan.
DON CHERRY
I am. He's just playing the wrong game.
