Elizabeth May was drunk… At least, that’s what I think.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May went a little kooky on the weekend and made a really awkward, unfunny speech at the Press Gallery Dinner.

Details here:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/elizabeth-may-goes-off-the-rails-in-awkward-press-gallery-dinner-speech-1.3068674?cmp=rss

This morning she is apologizing:

"I wouldn't want anyone to think I was less than respectful for the people with whom I work," May said.

"I apologize that I made an attempt to be funny and edgy....and it didn't work."

May said she was just getting over the flu, had put in a 21-hour work day on Friday, and then had to rise early in B.C. on Saturday morning to make it to the press gallery event in Gatineau, Que.

"My funny speech wasn't funny. That's not the first time a politician has done that."

Um… I call BS. I have seen these symptoms before in others (and in myself). This looks a lot like “drunk and uninhibited.” The question in my mind is whether it’s better to apologize with spin (as she has now done) or to be honest and simply say, “I had too much to drink and said some things that I should not have said. I am sorry. It will not happen again.” I think the latter is a better approach because I don’t think too many of us are buying the spin. 

And, as I teach my kids, an apology isn’t much of an apology if it comes with a “but” as in, “I am sorry that I said some silly things but I was just trying to be funny.”

That’s an excuse. Not an apology.

There is another possibility. Elizabeth May has no natural sense of humour. This is also a possibility although I am inclined to my first thought.