Tory MPP Jack MacLaren finishes ‘constructive’ sensitivity training course
Tory MPP Jack MacLaren finds his sensitive side but won’t return to Queen’s Park until September

thestar.com
May 18, 2016
By Rob Ferguson

Jack MacLaren has found his sensitive side, but says he won’t be displaying it in Toronto just yet.

The embattled Progressive Conservative MPP - banished to his Ottawa-area riding for telling a vulgar sex joke about a female Liberal MP - is finished the sensitivity training ordered by his boss, party leader Patrick Brown.

“I found it rather constructive,” MacLaren told the Star in an exclusive interview Tuesday, breaking weeks of silence on the furor that prompted his departure from Queen’s Park.

“It forces a person to look at and consider things,” he added, noting the effort involved “quite a number” of sessions with a training company.

MacLaren was sent home following a lingering controversy over remarks he made about Liberal MP Karen McCrimmon at a “men’s night” cancer charity fundraiser in Carp, Ont., just west of Ottawa.

“I think I’m improved,” he said, reflecting on the experience.

Brown said much the same Tuesday.

“When I have spoken to Jack MacLaren he showed a significant amount of contrition, has taken the sensitivity training sincerely and I’m glad he’s taken that approach.”

But the PC boss was less than pleased with a charity fundraiser planned for MacLaren in his riding of Carleton-Mississippi Mills on May 28.

“I shook my head at it” after first seeing the flyer advertising the event, said Brown, who made it clear he will not be attending.

Called “Sticks and Stones,” it’s billed on posters as “an evening of support” and a “make it right night” with proceeds going to a charity of MacLaren’s choice.

The event is organized by MacLaren backers including the chief financial officer of his campaigns, Carleton Landowners Association president Shirley Dolan, and appears to be a poke at Brown for disciplining his MPP.

Dolan said ticket sales are “going well” for the dinner of chicken, rice and vegetables with cheesecake for dessert.

“I don’t see this as a political event,” she added in an email. “It’s a get-together with a friend and neighbour who has been helpful to many of us in the past.”

It features a dinner, door prizes and a magic show by Eric Leclerc for $50 at the Intercultural Dialogue Institute near MacLaren’s constituency office in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata. Tickets are being sold online.

While Brown and MacLaren have chatted recently, the PC leader said: “I did not talk about his attendance at that fundraiser.”

“If Jack is going to go to that fundraiser and show contrition and highlight how he’s taken this incident seriously, then I would welcome any public examples of contrition.”

MacLaren said he plans to attend and direct the proceeds to the Red Cross to help relief efforts after forest fires devastated Fort McMurray.

As for what he will say at the event, MacLaren emailed a draft copy of his speech acknowledging “words do hurt and do a lot of harm” and mentioned growing up in the 1960s as a witness to liberation movements for women, black people, and people fighting communist tyranny.

“We who came of age in that time can’t be complacent . . . we have much more work to do,” he added in the draft, where he touched directly on his sensitivity training.

“I took it to serve you better. I learned a lot in this course. I recommend this kind of reflection and education for everyone.

“We can’t lose anybody or any contribution, or any productive time, because of thoughtless comments.”

Brown said the question of MacLaren’s return to Queen’s Park remains to be decided, telling the Star “that’s going to require another conversation that I’ll have with Jack.”

But the MPP said he won’t be back for the final two weeks of the legislature’s spring session, which ends June 9, with MPPs returning to their ridings until the fall session begins Sept. 12.

“We’d be looking at something at the end of summer,” said MacLaren, maintaining “things are going along quite well” in dealings with Brown.

“We’re just taking our time and doing everything properly. There’s no rush,” added the MPP, noting the most enjoyable part of his job is dealing with constituents who need help.

“They’re the people I should answer to.”

Asked if he plans to leave the party to sit as an independent MPP after the ordeal, MacLaren said: “I’m a member of the PC party and always will be.”