Rex Murphy

Rex Murphy is a well known CBC commentator and author of the 'Japes of Wrath' column in the Globe & Mail's Saturday edition. His style can be described as tell-it-like-it-is, deadpan sarcastic, poignant, truthful Newfoundlander synopsis of current events without the brogue. Murphy's commentaries are non-partisan despite previously running unsuccessfully for provincial office for the Progressive-Conservative and Liberal Party candidacies.

Sourced

• "Not every article in every magazine of newspaper is meant to be a valentine card addressed to every reader's self-esteem."

-On a complaint against an "Islamaphobic" article in a Canadian magazine 2008 (http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/rex_murphy/human_rights_gone_awry.html)

• "Stay away from philosophy, kids: it will ruin your mind."

-On a French philosopher's defense of Roman Polanski, following the later's arrest in Switzerland and extradition to the US.

Unsourced

• "What began as tomorrow’s politics today by last weekend resembled nothing so much as a Dr. Kevorkian assisted script for a roadrunner cartoon. The conservatives have been in fast forward free-fall. They’re not exactly crying “bring out your dead” but, last Sunday, note this, Kim Campbell took to mentioning Brian Mulroney, in public, and praising him."

-On the Progressive Conservatives campaign in 1993

• "The only difference between the Campbell campaign and the retreat from Moscow was that Napoleon wasn’t required on the way back to drop in on MuchMusic and conceptualize the fiasco with Ziggy."

-On the Progressive Conservatives campaign in 1993

• "Preston Manning is kind of a low-key combination of the man from glad, and John the Baptist. A lot of people, some in the media, but most in the back rooms, look down on Manning. They radiate a kind of contempt that this unprepossessing, tepid, evangelical hick is cluttering up their campaigns. They’re so far back in the woods they’ll have to come out to hunt."

-On the Reform campaign in 1993

• "Doug Henning’s ads were the campaigns’ gold. Dr. Henning is the vice-swami, or the guru, or is it the thigh master, who is in charge of the natural law party. Dr. Henning can make elephants disappear. As a political skill this is of limited practicality. We do not have many elephants in Canada, certainly not so many as to thrust elephant relocation, never mind outright displacement, to the top of Canada’s social agenda. Reflecting on this I’m inclined to the thought that Dr. Henning is campaigning on the wrong continent, conceivably on the wrong planet. His followers in the natural law party are a bunch of frustrated levitators. Am I being over critical? Probably. As the wise proverb observes, you should never make fun of a fellow human being, until you have bounced a mile in his buttocks."

-On the Natural Law campaign in 1993