The Parliament Hill sensei: Mixing karate and politics? So what else is new?

VANCOUVER, B.C.

Much is being made of the fact that Mathieu Ravignat, the newly elected Quebec New Democrat who knocked off foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon, is among other things a karate instructor.

A good deal of the tone of this commentary is faintly mocking, as if running around in white pajamas yelling kee-yiy and whacking objects and people with fists and feet isn't really a suitable activity for a grownup, and is therefore an apt metaphor for the inexperience of the new, much-larger NDP Parliamentary caucus.