XPost: can.politics, man.politics, wpg.general   
   From: tw1161331@tweaknews.eu   
      
   QMI Agency - Feb 19, 2015   
      
   Too-tight underwear reason for absence during vote: MP   
      
      
   WINNIPEG ─ A brief exchange at the House of Commons Thursday morning   
   revealed    
   even Winnipeg politicians can't resist a good bargain.   
      
   Winnipeg Centre MP Pat Martin was put in the hot seat Thursday when asked to    
   explain why he was out of his seat during a vote on a procedural motion.   
      
   His excuse: his half-price underwear was too small.   
      
   On Thursday morning, Conservative MP Royal Galipeau called on Martin to    
   explain why he left his seat during a vote to adjourn debate.   
                                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^   
      
   Martin responded with perhaps more detail than the House of Commons was    
   expecting.   
      
   "I can blame it on a sale that was held at the Hudson's Bay.  They had a bunch    
   on for half-price. I bought a bunch that was clearly too small for me, and I    
   find it difficult to sit for any length of time, Mr. Speaker.  So I apologize    
   if it was necessary for me to leave my seat briefly, but I did not mean to    
   forfeit my right to vote."   
      
   Martin continued to joke about his exchange hours later, when speaking to QMI    
   Agency.   
      
   "It is a matter of civic pride for Winnipeggers that nobody pays full price    
   for anything, 50% off is like cat-nip to a Winnipegger,” Martin told QMI    
   Agency.   
      
   In actuality, the NDP MP said he left his seat to ask the speaker to clarify    
   what they were voting on, forgetting that if he was out of his seat, his vote    
   doesn't count.   
      
   "I know better, I know you are not allowed to do that.  You can't leave your    
   seat in the middle of a vote, so someone on the other side objected and I had    
   to scramble a little bit and 'brief' the speaker as to why I would get up," he    
   said.   
      
   However, Martin said he was drawing on a real-life experience when he told his    
   tall tale.   
      
   A recent sale at the Hudson's Bay Company caused Martin to buy up multiple    
   pairs, without looking at the size.   
      
   “I went to both stores and cleaned them out, it was a great sale."   
      
   After the explanation was given, the House of Commons erupted in laughter,    
   with Deputy Speaker Joe Comartin responding, "I've had no briefing on this    
   type of uh ... motion," he said.   
      
   In the end, Comartin let the vote stand, noting Martin was at his seat when    
   the motion was read.   
      
   "I hope a Member of Parliament never has to invoke the state of their    
   underwear again in a parliamentary procedure.  It could be a dangerous    
   precedent."   
      
   ____________________________________   
      
   PAT'S GREATEST HITS   
      
   Thursday wasn't the first time Pat Martin garnered headlines for something he    
   said.  A brief review:   
      
   LOST HIS FREAKING MIND?   
      
   "Mr. Speaker, my question is simple, and I ask it through you: Has the    
   minister lost his freaking mind?"  Martin said in the House of Commons on Dec.    
   4, 2014, in response to reports of a planned American corporate takeover of    
   the Canadian Wheat Board.   
      
   ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE   
      
   Martin inquired about the federal government's zombie apocalypse strategy on    
   Feb. 13, 2013, after the Quebec government did a emergency preparedness    
   planning exercise based on that threat.  "I don't need to tell you, Mr.    
   Speaker, that zombies don't recognize borders," Martin said.   
      
   RAT-FACED WHORES   
      
   Martin pitched an online fit on Dec. 19, 2012, after he wasn't invited to a    
   news conference in his Winnipeg Centre riding where the three levels of    
   government announced funding for subsidized housing.  "I'm not 'worked up' so    
   much as 'fed up' with the rat-faced whores in the CPC who neglect to invite me    
   to announcements in my riding," Martin wrote, calling the Tories "bad people"    
   in another post and referencing details of Vic Toews' divorce.  He quit    
   Twitter the following day.   
      
   SALTY ENOUGH FOR YOU?   
      
   Martin freaked out on Twitter Nov. 17, 2011, after the Harper government shut    
   down parliamentary debate on the federal budget.  "This is a f---ing disgrace    
   ... closure again.  And on the budget!  There's not a democracy in the world    
   that would tolerate this jackboot s---." Martin tweeted on Nov 17, 2011 after    
   the federal Tories closed down parliamentary debate on the federal budget.  A    
   tweeter responded by calling Martin a "foul-mouth socialist," to which the MP    
   wrote back, "F--- you."  He told another critic to "eat my shorts."   
      
   MORE THAN HE CAN CHEW   
      
   In October 2011, Martin suggested in the House of Commons that the dismantling    
   of the Canadian Wheat Board's single-desk was akin to the Canadian beaver    
   "biting off his own testicles."   
      
   BOLT CUTTERS   
      
   In June 2011, he told Parliament during a debate on Canada Post that "every    
   kid on the street (in Winnipeg) has a bolt-cutter so he can steal bikes."   
      
   EVANGELICAL FUNDAMENTALISTS   
      
   Martin criticized the Harper government and city hall in February 2010 for    
   giving money to the Youth for Christ to build a youth centre at the corner of    
   Main Street and Higgins Avenue, suggesting the group is nothing more than a    
   fundamentalist organization trying to recruit impressionable youth.   
   ____________________________   
      
   No wonder Ujjal Dosanjh is promoting this:   
      
   Ujjal Dosanjh calls for extremism oversight in religious institutions, private    
   schools   
      
           http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ujjal-dos   
   njh-calls-for-extremism-oversight-in-religious-institutions-priv   
   te-schools-1.2961490   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)