Walter Wakula said Tuesday that the rules for the nomination are biased against anyone challenging Anders.
Only people who were members of the party last August can vote and challengers can't get a party membership list until after Tuesday's nomination deadline passes.
Wakula said it's like running a 100-metre dash, but Anders is on the 50-metre line while challengers are at the start line with a ball and chain tied to their legs.
"I mean, that is just not a fair race."
For voters in Calgary West, this is important. We live (supposedly) in a democracy, and the CPoC is supposedly a 'grassroots' party where the members are free to speak their minds. The ongoing saga of Anders' nomination merely demonstrates that under current leadership, the CPoC is no longer either grassroots, or even particularly democratic.
When someone cannot contest the nomination for the riding because the MP is magically protected by the PM's whim, and worse, instead of being honest about it, we find the party engaging in all sorts of legal games and rules bending to achieve their goals, one has to begin wondering just what's really at play here.
At this point, it looks like Anders' will be the candidate for the CPoC in Calgary West. Come next election, voters will have to decide if the kind of dishonest, corrupt shenanigans that have gone on in this nomination saga have left Anders with any credibility in terms of his ability to represent them. (Remember, at this point, whoever is protecting his nomination basically owns his ass - if he doesn't bow to their whim, they withdraw their shield - do you know who is protecting Anders so vigorously? ... and would you want someone like that able to puppet-master your MP?
4 comments:
Well, if THAT doesn't work, then they will have to change the rules again to overturn any challengers because they are unable to dance on their toes and sing falsetto Gilbert and Sullivan "I am the very model of a modern major general....".
Oops, they messed up a line, looks like they are disqualified from the nomination process.
They will crown their Anders, come hell or high water. (Ok, we had the high water last night... we're just waiting on hell to arrive on horseback).
Grog:
I am attempting to offer a solution to Calgary West by running as an Independent. I was ready to go several weeks ago when there was a possibility of an election, and I continue to promise to run, no matter when it's called.
Feel free to peruse my website
http://www.kirkschmidt.ca
and please feel free to give me feedback/ask questions.
P.S. I've actually been reading your weblog for a few months now, just never posted. I hope you will forgive my blatant marketing :)
Kirk,
Anybody who is offering an alternative to Rob Anders is a good thing in my books.
Best Wishes.
Last night, amid the news coming off 660 newsradio about the high water (which we listened to as we attempted to find a route home that wouldn't turn the car into a wheeled boat) there was an announcement from the male half of the newsteam -- pretty much out of nowhere -- that despite the legal challenges over the last year, Rob Anders had been acclaimed anyway. I swear he snorted in dismissal. And then just as abruptly, back to the storm. No context, nothing. It was hard not to interpret the blurt as some weird ha-Hah ala 'The Simpsons'.
I just want to know who Anders has video on to be so protected.
But then, given that Harper was blithely giving assurances to Putin at the G8 summit that the US intended Russia no harm with the BDM program for Europe...like he has any idea what the US is actually intending (and as Alton Brown would say on his Food Channel show "uni-tasker utensil? Bah!!") I guess Harper could very well see Anders as being good PR for his party and ideology.
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