And while it seems that dispute can be put away easily enough, not so for the facebook spat he had with Elena Smith, the president of the Teachers Union. She put up a post last night, saying, quote, "So I posted a question earlier. I wrote:"Betty Brown Pott school? Why da name sound familiar? Da fi who ma that? Hmmm makes me wonder."
And then, she says Faber Whatsapped her saying: " Your comment about my mother shows the kind of low life that you are.... I'll leave you to God. I'm the kind of leader that will not allow an idiot to disrespect my mother."
Smith posted a sharp reply to this and ended by saying, quote, "Any person who acts like a petty, spoilt brat does not deserve to be in the position you are aspiring for. You are certainly behaving like you wear a skirt. A damn bully is what you are but you nor any of your cronies who scrutinize my fb page will bully me into being silent… You want to fight with me on a personal level, bring it on. This is one woman your hands will not touch." End quote.
Today, Faber would not respond to that stinging reply and would only say he was sorry he had tangled with Smith in the first place:
Hon. Patrick Faber, UDP Leader-Elect
"I regret being baited into that situation and for those who have said 'Lawd man Faber man' this is not behavior that is becoming of a prime ministerial aspirant then I apologize but I will not apologize for defending my mother's name and I will not apologize for accepting to put something in her honor when she did that in her own right. It should not be held against her that her son is the minister of education, longest serving minister of education. In so far as it might not have been the best thing to do under these campaign circumstance where you are trying to convince people of other things in this election season and knowing fully well it is as I have said to you the kind of season where people will come and throw attacks then I should have had better judgment and I apologize if I offended anyone but I will defend."
Reporter:
"You did go as far as referring to her as an idiot sir."
Hon. Patrick Faber, UDP Leader-Elect
"I did not, I did not I said, in fact and this is part of the problem but I don't want to take it any further she did not share with you the entire, she had select quotations which she chose but as I have said, I don't wish to take it any further, I should have used better judgment and if it offended her or anybody else I apologize. It is not normally how I would want to operate but you understand when they touch the very delicate tone of my mother then that sent the thing another way and I apologize for that."
