Public riffs about Tories’ sins and scandals after MP compares her government to Jesus

The frightening thing about election time, if you’re in power, is that all the people you’ve managed to muzzle and park on the backbenches where they can do no harm are also seeking re-election.

This means they have to go out and meet with constituents. They have to speak to people in public.

That went horribly wrong for the Conservatives this week when a speech by MP Wai Young surfaced, in which she compares her government to Jesus.

Yes. To Jesus.

“Jesus served, he saved, but he acted, as well,” Wai Young told a church congregation in her Vancouver South riding last month.

“I want to share with you what I think about what our government is doing in the same vein — Jesus served and acted to always do the right thing, not the most popular thing….”

In a recording of the speech obtained and first reported by PressProgress.ca, Young is heard saying the Conservatives will always act and do the right thing.

“We’ve done that recently by protecting Canadians, I mentioned the Victim’s Bill of Rights. We’ve strengthened the consequences for crime and dangerous offenders at every turn where possible. We’ve enacted Bill C-51 [the anti-terror bill]….”

Twitter is never so good as when it’s bad and the Canadian Twitterverse was positively impertinent. Both @WaiYoung and #CPCJesus quickly began trending in Canada.

“God saw the light, and saw that it was good - so he cancelled its funding,” tweeted This Hour Has 22 Minutes comedian Mark Critch.

“Making someone a senator is like making someone a Saint except for the part where they eventually get arrested,” he added.

“The leper was cured by the Lord. But the Lord made him appear before a review panel to make sure his legs didn’t grow back,” tweeted @PatOndabak, in reference to the government’s controversial changes to veteran’s benefits.

“Does that make Mike Duffy Judas Iscariot or Pontias Pilate?” added Scott Reid.

The Conservatives were castigated for their record on everything from their anti-terror bill to government secrecy.

“FOI requests on the Bible come back with the Sermon on the Mount redacted,” tweeted Derrick O’Keefe.

“If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also, that both might be searched for advocacy of terrorism,” Chris Turner added.

“Thou shalt not covet the Prime Minister’s Office,” Chris Markevich chimed in.

“#CPCJesus gives sermon on the mount but no reporters allowed,” tweeted Beverly Frans.

“Go forth and propagandize the heathens,” Sandra wrote.

And: “I hear #CPCJesus can walk on oil spills,” contributed the Dogwood Initiative’s Kai Nagata.

It was not all giggles, however.

Young also told the congregation that had the Tories’ controversial terror legislation been in place 30 years ago, the 1985 Air India bombing would not have occurred.

“Those some-400 lives would have been saved,” she said, telling the audience that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service knew about the bomb on the plane.

“But because of the strict laws that government departments have, they cannot share information between departments. I don’t know if you guys know that. Because they couldn’t share that information with RCMP. RCMP could not act to take that bomb off that plane.”

Young recanted that statement this week after the speech became public.