Saturday, March 15, 2008

Federal Byelections



There was some interesting programing on CPAC today. It was about all four byelections, but by far the most interesting of the 4 to me were the two going on in my back yard. That would be Willowdale and Toronto Centre.

The show was a bit of a behind the scenes look at what is going on in each riding. The CPAC reporter spent time with each candidate, in their riding offices, out door-knocking and at all candidate meetings. I know you are familiar with the two Liberal candidates, Martha Hall Findley and Bob Rae but you may be less familiar with the 2 Conservative candidates.

If you are not familiar with them, you can be forgiven. Let me introduce you. On your left is Maureen Harquil. She is Martha's opponent. On the right, Don Meredith who was injected into the Toronto Centre riding after the Con's ejected Mark Warner.
The reason you may not know them is because they have both been forbidden to speak to national media and of course that includes CPAC. The show exposed this fact in no uncertain terms. It was painful to watch my friends but if there was ever any doubt about how much control Harper has over his people, this puts it to rest.
The CPAC reporter arrives at Harquil's riding office, a 2 storey house. She's upstairs and he asks if he can speak with her. An employee dispatched from above runs down the stairs and picks up a phone and suggests that the reporter speak to Harquil's campaign manager. (She is upstairs people, likely listening to all of this!) He tries to book a time and is told that she will not be speaking to media. Apparently, she has failed to show up at some of the all candidate meetings too.
The same held true for Meredith. The reporter cornered him at one point and he said he was just too busy at the moment, but gave him his cell phone number. The reporter left messages for 2 days, with no reply. On the 3rd day at an all candidates meeting Meredith was at the front of the room and the CPAC videographer had him in his sights. The reporter dialed the cell phone number. Meredith looked at his phone and let the call go to call answer. In fairness, he gave the reporter a few minutes after the meeting, but it was pathetic.
As I said, it was painful to watch. I may not agree with what these people stand for, (Harquil for instance is Flaherty's cousin), but they are clever, accomplished individuals. What I do not get is how such individuals can accept such terms in order to run? If they cannot deviate from script when they are running a byelection, what makes them think they'll have a voice in caucus. Ironic really, because they run on the fact that they are in government so they have a voice and can get the people's work done. Voice? Not a chance, at least not in those riding's.
I'm sure the programs will be repeated, so if you're interested, tune in. I watched the Sask and B.C. pieces too. Those Conservative candidates spoke. The candidate in Sask. was impressive, the one in B.C. is very accomplished, but the Kool-Aid stains were visible on her T-shirt.
Great campaign don't you think? Vote for me. I don't matter, but if you vote for me you give my master, Stephen Harper, more power.
Insanity.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

So now Mr. Harper is a slave owner?
Nice take on it asshole

Karen said...

Brave anon, that would be your take on the facts, not mine.

Thanks for being so reasonable, rational, not to mention polite in response to my post.

To the rest, it's astonishing how ignorance seems to be what Harper is seeking isn't it? I guess he's getting what he wished for.

Parila said...

I tink you are too easy on Meredith. He is a Pentecostal Minister who has made a fool of himself throughout the campaign as evidenced from various blogs and news accounts.

He advocated raising the age of consent to 18 in anterview with a community newspaper.

He told a Gay newspaper that he supported the Siskay private member bill adding transgendered people to the human rights code, then was forced to retract that at an al-candidates meeting.

At another all-candidates meeting he claimed that there were "rivers of blood" flowing through Toronto Centre. Kind of reminds one of Hedi Fry, eh?

At another all-candidates meeting, he responded to a question on bed bugs by telling the questioner to take a shower.

At another all-candidates meet, he confused Afghanistan with Iraq.

With idiot clients like that, there is no wonder the CPC wants to muzzle their candidates. He will probably finish fourth and lose his deposit.

As for Harquail, it is hard to know whether the muzzle is justified or not. However, she has been campaigning longer than Martha, and Martha does not have the same "star" candidate name recognition in Willowdale that Bob has in Toronto Centre. So even though Harquail is a less than inspiring candidate, the CPC brand strength among jewish voters might narrow Jim Peterson's margin of victory considerably.

Karen said...

Parila, no, I haven't been too easy on him. My aim was not to excoriate the Con's. I only tried to provide context into how they work.

All that you said about Meredith is true and about Iraq, even when he was corrected, he kept making the same mistake.

I guess my point is that these are people who should realise the risk of being shut down. They have been locally and nationally.

I simply meant, if they stood a chance federally, why on earth do they think that their voice would be heard?

That's me though, not one to be told to shut up, let alone what to say.

I think you are wrong about Hall Findley's 'star' quality. We'll see who get's the vote out.

Anonymous said...

Why should Conservative candidates bother talking to the Liberal goebbelian media???

Canada is infested with 'liberalism' and that is tearing what is left of the social fabric into shreds.

Karen said...

anon, you obviouly have no idea about who owns media in this country.

The right repeats that old canard over and over, but the facts do not support it and juvenile repetition will not change that.

RuralSandi said...

Boy these "Liberal media" comments are pathetic. They allow themselves to be twisted.

Harper deliberatley claimed Liberal media bias to plant that seed in the minds of people - it was a deliberate manipulation and it's amazing how so many suckers fell for it without checking out the facts - these people shouldn't be allowed to comment or vote unless they get their facts straight. They are a pathetic bunch of puppets.

Conservative Media - CanWest, Sun Media, National Post (defunct Western Standard) and these companies own all the small town papers.

Liberal Media - Toronto Star.

Jeffrey Simpson even said the Globe and Mail now leans more to the right.

Do the math idiots.

Harper LIED to you.

Karen said...

What's really funny Sandi, is we are talking about CPAC here.