MPP Lisa MacLeod

Lisa MacLeod makes an announcement about Ontario's autism program at Queen's Park in Toronto on Thursday, March 21, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin


​MPP Lisa MacLeod:

Is there "Meth"od in her apparent madness?

When I was out walking the other day a young woman turned a corner and walked past me down the centre of the road screaming at the top of her lungs at someone who had raced far ahead of her on a bicycle.  She was cussing him out in the same way that Lisa MacLeod did to the Ottawa Senators' owner Eugene Melnyck.

I remember thinking, gee, I wish I were half as un-self-conscious as that girl.

When I arrived home I mentioned it in passing to the "go-to" woman in my apartment building, whom I met in the hall. She knows everything it seems, so I have to assume she knew what she was talking about when she said, "Oh, she was on meth."

So I had to look up the symptoms of addiction to methamphetamine, and by golly, I think the go-to lady was right.

Provincial Minister Lisa MacLeod's behaviour strikes me as somewhat similar, though she herself describes it as merely being strident "feedback".

CTV: Calls grow for Ontario sport minister to resign over alleged 'vulgar and profane' attack

• Melnyk alleges he was on the receiving end of a profanity-laden rant from the provincial minister, telling the Ottawa Citizen that MacLeod burst through the crowd and accosted him yelling: “I am your minister and you’re a f—ing piece of s–t and you’re a f—ing loser’.”
• MacLeod tweeted to “set the record straight” early Friday.
• “I gave @MelnykEugene some feedback at the Rolling Stones concert and I apologized to him for being so blunt,” she wrote on Twitter.
• “I have serious concerns about the state of our beloved Ottawa Senators! We need to get our team back on the road to winning the cup!

MacLeod attended the concert in her capacity as Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, where you'd think she'd fit in well since she's certainly familiar with the locker room lingo. Unfortunately, she comes across as mercurial and scary.

So, I have to ask myself, was she on something? And if so, what could it have been? Looking at the photo (above) of her talking about the program for autistic children to which she apparently took a slash-and-burn approach, her eyes seem wider than usual, her pupils are very small, and she's wearing a sort of "duh" expression.  The parents of autistic children were not impressed with her or her radical budget methods, to put it mildly.

In this video, she's subdued and in tears after being made Minister of Children ..., and when she's removed from that post for poor performance and made Minister of Sport, etc., her speech is happy and rapid, and, later to the press, she blurts rather callously: "I was Minister of Tears; now I'm Minister of Cheers". Strange, quixotic behaviour to say the least.

So I did search for drugs that have a similar effect on the eyes, and, sure enough, there are eyes that look just like that listed under "Marijuana, MDMA and Speed".  MDMA is methamphetamine, also known as "Molly":

From DrugAbuse.com:

• [Molly is] a popular rave drug used at nightclubs and music festivals to alter mood and perception. People may see Molly as a drug that helps them let loose, connect to others, and dance all night ...

Methamphetamine is also often used to lose weight, and Ms. MacLeod has a serious, even dangerous weight problem.

I've mentioned before how certain post-secondary education (notably The Munk School in Toronto) is limited to training in politics and MacLeod was one such student, except that she studied at St. Francis Xavier.  She entered politics with no significant (if any) experience whatsoever of what I would consider to be "the real world".

She moved around considerably, from Federal to Provincial, from portfolio to portfolio, trying to find her nitch perhaps -- gradually changing her appearance with makeup, clothing and hair colour, in a possible attempt to distract from her weight problem.

She's not alone in her predicament; it was reported in 2015 that over 60% of Canadians are overweight or obese. I doubt the percentage is lower now. All one has to do is look around when out in a crowd.

Lisa MacLeod is one of those unfortunate Canadians and may well be trying to do something about it.  Given her apparent lack of judgement in her several political posts, it's conceivable she may be resorting to amphetamines in an attempt to control her weight (and/or relieve her depression).

It's possible also that I'm wrong, but she does fit the picture and her reported shocking outburst at Eugene Melnyck adds to it.

Her website uses an old photo on the main page that mutes her appearance, but the site does contain photos of her at various events where she hides her girth better sometimes than others -- or her weight fluctuates according to how often she goes on diets, or possibly uses weight-loss drugs.

In a 2016 YouTube interview, she acknowledged that she had "battled" depression in the past, which is common in obese people, but tried to give the impression she had recovered from it.

The sad thing in the video is that when she talks about her "depression" as having caused her to lose 40 lbs. she reveals a serious mental block about her true situation. Her pupils do seem normal, however, and you'd never suspect from her demeanour that she could be capable of being cold-blooded with parents of autistic kids, or conceited, foul-mouthed and arrogant in her interaction with Melnyk:

From PostMillennial:

• MacLeod:“Do you know who I am?” Melnyk: “I’m sorry. No.” MacLeod: “I am your minister,” [and you are] “a f*cking piece of sh*t” and “a f*cking loser.”

Here's an eye-opener for you:

Canada.com: (2012) Canada's diet pill market about to get heavier: Approval sought for new weight-loss drug

• As with any newly approved drug, the potential long-term risks are unknown, doctors say.
• With Meridia and fen-phen, it wasn’t until the drugs started to be prescribed widely that “signals” for severe adverse effects were picked up.
• “The hope is that these two new medications won’t suffer the same fate,” said Dr. Sean Wharton, an internal medicine specialist and director of the Wharton Medical Clinic in Burlington, On., one of the largest provincially government-funded weight management clinics in the country.
• Another concern is runaway prescribing, Wharton says, where doctors unfamiliar with the medications and their side effects start prescribing them “in a cavalier way” and to all comers 

If "Meridia" did get approved for medical use in Canada, it will very likely be under a different name.  But that doesn't matter, because there are online pharmacies where Canadians can buy "weight loss" pills, and Meridia is among them.

And now there's even a "public-health crusade" to bolster sales of "amphetamines for weight loss":

RXisk.org: (2015) A Blast from the Past: Amphetamines for Weight Loss

• Under the cover of a public-health crusade against obesity, drug companies are bringing back old-fashioned “speed” in brand-new packages. Last week’s post described the newly-approved weight loss pill Contrave, a combination of the stimulant bupropion and naltrexone. Contrave will compete with Qsymia, a combination of the stimulant phentermine and the anticonvulsant Topamax approved last year.

And some people think I'm hard on the medical profession.

As for Melnyck saying he didn't know who MacLeod was when she yelled at him: in all fairness, when he saw her last, she had dark hair, was not nearly so formidable, looked quite cheery, and did not appear as heavy as she does now.

Image 2017 Twitter