Also seen on the same tape was Tom Lukiwski -- in 1991, a senior election campaign staffer in the Progressive Conservative party, but now the Conservative MP for Regina-Lumsden-Lake centre. Caught slurring gays on the tape, he did -- to his credit -- publicly apologize several times and in an April 4 speech in the House of Commons said: "I will spend the rest of my career and my life trying to make up for those comments."
How odd, then, that he was conspicuously absent from the weekend Gay Pride parade in Regina, to which he had been invited several months ago. A good speaker like Lukiwski could have shown up, absorbed a few jeers, then delivered a Wall-like speech again expressing apologies for his comments and calling on all to show tolerance toward others.
By declining to show up -- or even respond to the invitation -- he has merely recharged the energy of his critics. It was an opportunity lost and a wound left unhealed.
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