Liberals Want MP Colin Mayes to Resign

It never ceases to amaze me that some people can be so obviously obtuse when they're in denial or trying to cover their political butt.

Case in point:

OTTAWA (CP) - Liberals want a Conservative MP to resign as head of the Commons aboriginal affairs committee over his response to a racist e-mail.

At issue is a joke e-mail that refers to a native man as 'Tonto' and 'chief.' A British Columbia television station reported that Tory MP Colin Mayes received the e-mail and responded with a "good joke." Mayes didn't deny the response when questioned, but said he didn't mean to endorse such humour.

If "good joke" isn't an endorsement of that type of racist humour, what is?

And this isn't the first time Colin Mayes has been in hot water:

Vernon, B.C. — Soon after proclaiming some journalists should be thrown in jail, Okanagan-Shuswap MP Colin Mayes apologized for his comments.

Mr. Mayes, a rookie Conservative backbencher, retracted his statements less than a day after sending an editorial column to several small newspapers in his B.C. riding, as well as the Vernon Daily Courier.

In the column e-mailed from his office Thursday, he suggested reporters who violate their public trust by producing inaccurate or fabricated articles should be imprisoned.

But by Friday morning Mr. Mayes had issued an apology.
[...]
Mr. Mayes had noted the Conservative government's top priority was to pass its accountability legislation. He argued the media held a public trust similar to that of business leaders, public servants and politicians.

"Boy, would the public get accurate and true information if a few reporters were hauled away to jail!" he wrote in his column.

"Maybe it is time that we hauled off in handcuffs reporters that fabricate stories or twist information and even falsely accuse citizens."

Isn't it always the case that these tories who sit on their high horse of moral superiority and 'accountability' are the ones to fall off - landing in the hardest possible way? Just how many times do we have to watch that scenario play out before there are real consequences? And just how long do we have to watch this government pay lip service to the plight of our aboriginal people while snickering behind their backs?

Related: Liberal Party press release.

More conservatives behaving badly in Mayes' riding.

An e-mail that some directors found offensive led to the firing of a board member in the local Conservative riding association.

Miles Lehn said directors took offence to one of his e-mails resulting in his firing at a meeting Monday night. He said the e-mail was written in jest.

“I suggested to a board member that the board member take Jacquie and Colin (Mayes) out to Lumby and sign up members of a new congregation so they could stop any godless infidels from coming on to the board,” said Lehn who did not attend Monday’s meeting. “What I found on the board was that they were basically all members of (Mayes’ church) congregation.”

Is it something in the water in that riding or what?

Update: CTV has more, including the content of the joke and Mayes' response to the calls for his resignation.

"This is just a cheap, partisan smear levelled against me,'' Colin Mayes said in an interview after initially ducking out of a meeting on Parliament Hill without speaking to reporters.

"She has taken an e-mail and completely misrepresented it,'' he said of Liberal MP and aboriginal affairs critic Anita Neville.

"I find no humour (in anything) that insults the culture or the heritage of any group of people. Those types of jokes are completely inappropriate.''
[...]
It was leaked to a British Columbia television station by a man who was recently fired from the board of the local Conservative association in Mayes's riding of Okanagan-Shuswap.

Miles Lehn was voted off the board, ironically, by directors who took offence to an e-mail he said was written in jest.
[...]
Asked if he still thinks the story of the native man in the coffee shop was a "good joke,'' Mayes said he couldn't really remember the content.

"I get hundreds of e-mails.''

Besides, he added, he may have intended to convey sarcasm.

Mayes was less circumspect when buttonholed by a B.C. television reporter earlier this week.

"I just laugh,'' he said of any suggestion he's racist. "They're just grasping at straws.''

Keep digging yourself deeper into that hole you're in, Mayes.