I Simply Cannot Believe This Is Really Happening

An NDP official in Victoria has been suspended by the party because of an e-mail he sent, describing the Liberal who defeated him in the last election as a "potato head."

You read that correctly.

Mike Hanson, on the New Democratic Party's communications staff, is being disciplined by NDP leader Carole James for his "inappropriate" use of the term potato head in reference to Liberal MLA Kevin Krueger, in a private e-mail to party members, that Krueger isn't even complaining about.

"That is, you know, the way that I do politics, the way that I will continue to do politics," James explained, giving us all more great politics to look forward to.

It gets better: Mr. Potato Head only recently took over the job of minister of state for mines from Bill Bennett, who was turfed from the job because of an e-mail that he wrote, which was the most straightforward, plain-spoken correspondence I have read from a politician in these parts for a long, long time.

It was in response to an absurd, insulting screed from the president of the Fernie Rod and Gun Club about "the rights of B.C. hunters" and how Americans are so much smarter than us in the way they allocate hunting rights. Bennett wrote: "It is my understanding that you are an American, so I don't give a shit what your opinion is on Canada or Canadian residents. . . I will continue to work for hunters and anglers in the East Kootenay as I always have and you will continue to be a self-inflated, pompous, American know-it-all. Have a nice day. Bill Bennett."

I'd have promoted Bennett. And given Hanson a raise.