Yuck

Dumb, dumb, DUMB... and yes, for the record, I do find the remarks offensive.

The smart move?  For the sake of the Party, I think he should just walk away... there's no room for those kinds of opinions in Canadian politics.

UPDATE: Some folks think I've come out too strongly against Mr. Lukiwski. There's a reason for that. In the political realm, I get tagged as a "racist bigot" all the time... though of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Hence my strong reaction against any evidence of it in our midst... because we already have enough image problems on that front already.

All that being said, people have asked the question of forgiveness... can there be any for this MP? Of course there can be... and I think his quick response, without excuse making, may enable him to gain it. For example, there's NDP MP Bill Siksay, who was the one to raise this issue in the Commons... Lukiwski called him to personally apologize for the remarks. I'm looking for the quote, but Siksay said he accepted it and now considers the matter closed. On the other hand, Liberal MP Scott Brison hasn't... there are people form whom the apology just won't do.

In reading about this issue today, I think one of the best posts I saw was Jason Cherniak's... he could have made hay with this one, but instead, he offered some very reasoned and thoughtful points on forgiveness.

As such, I'll take more of a wait and see approach to what happens next. I think his apology was immediate and heartfelt, and many seem to agree. Do I still think he needs to walk away? I don't know now... again, let's wait and see. I think there does need to be some action take to protect the Party, perhaps moving him to the backbenches for a while will serve that purpose. But again, I think I'll wait and see.

Is this going to hurt us moving forward? I don't know... most of those who would have really been offended likely weren't going to vote for us anyway. So we're going to have to wait and see.