995 Reasons Not to Vote for Gerard Kennedy (1-3)

Reason 1: Not fluent enough in French.

Gerard Kennedy's French has been described as "approximate", "crumbling under pressure", "insufficient", "not there yet", "better than Harper's five years ago", "inadequate" and just plain "horrible" (that last one was mine).

As a result, his handlers refuse to let him go on Quebec's hugely popular talk show Tout le monde en parle.

He met his francophone spouse in 1981, 25 years ago! A couple of months of speaking French at home are not going to make up for lost time.

-University Dropout Gerard Kennedy Afraid of Quebec Talk Show ;
-Gerard Kennedy on RDI: Horrible French. ;
-Gerard Kennedy est trop peureux pour Tout le monde en parle! ;
-Anybody but Kennedy: bad French on web site. ;
-Why Kennedy lost Quebec ;
-Gerard Kennedy a/in Gatineau: je parle le French tres beaucoup ;
-Parti Libéral: Course à quatre avec quelques désastres ;
-Warning to Liberals: look what happened to the NB NDP ;


Reason 2: No university degree
The Last PM without degree was Robert Borden (1911-1920) . And Borden was a self educated lawyer who passed the bar. The fact is, in Canada we like our leaders to have university credentials. If they weren't important, Kennedy wouldn't have mentioned attending TWO universities on his web site (his bio is a very good example of misleading advertising). Kennedy in fact spent one year at Trent and dropped out (flunked out?) of the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

People say he left university to work at the food bank. Well that doesn't appear to be true. He may indeed have been volunteering at the food bank, but even his web site bio mentions him being a "historical researcher". Presumably, he did that after leaving university. What we know for sure is that he became "Executive Director" in 1983, over two years after the creation of the food bank in 1981.

-Gerard Kennedy: a Reality Check ;
-Was Gerard Kennedy a Tax Cheat? ;
-Last PM without degree was Robert Borden (1911-1920) ;
-Gerard Kennedy is a University Drop-Out! ;

Reason 3: Lack of Respect for Jurisdictions
It is hard to criticise Gerard Kennedy's performance as Education Minister because the bar was set so low by the Harris Progressive Conservatives. Power sharing between the province and the school boards has not been resolved. His greatest achievement is apparently meddling in the collective agreement negotiations between the unions and the school boards.

Nationally, he is clearly a centralist. He wants a "third way" for relationships between the provinces and the federal government. He clearly wants to use (abuse) the federal government's power to spend. This is illustrated with his plan on having national standards for education.

Just Say No to Gerard Kennedy ;
Gerard Kennedy: a Reality Check ;
Why Kennedy lost Quebec .

Stay tuned for reasons 4 through 995.