Saturday, September 13, 2008

You've Got To Be Kidding

I've said for a long time that just beneath the veneer of civilized that the current owners of the name 'Conservative' in Canada is a squirming base of ugliness.

It appears the veneer's wearing thin:

Ezra is definitely in the Harper war room, a place he jokingly considers to be more of a "peace room. It's more huggable.

"I'm a volunteer helping out. I do burger runs. I do TV panels as a Conservative strategist. It's not that big a deal," says Ezra.

Well, when Ezra is contacted, he is not about to do a burger run but he is about to go on CTV as a Conservative strategist. Ezra tells us nothing about the burger preferences of the Tory war room but he lets us in on strategy.


"Huggable"??? Harper? Right ... but then again the odds of me seeing eye to eye with Ezra Lerant on anything are pretty slim.

Anyway, Chandler is back in the game and he plans to be working on the Harper team, almost certainly being in a Tory phone room wooing undecided voters in Ontario.

"I've been asked by the Tories to be involved heavily in this campaign. I get up from one fight with a black eye and it heals and I get into another one," says Chandler, who no one accuses of staying on the canvas long.

"The federal party is not like the provincial PCs. We work well together. We don't have a problem. I will have an involvement. It's a 99 percent guarantee. It will be in the phone rooms, wherever they are."

Chandler also says when Calgary gets new seats in Parliament because of the city's growth, some top Tories want him to run for one of the open spots.

"I've been asked to seek one of the seats," he says. Who has asked?

"These are people who are high-profile in the party."

The man also has a book coming out next year.

Chandler is well aware his presence in the campaign will raise some eyebrows.

"People can complain all they want. Democracy takes all kinds. We have to learn to play in the sandbox. If they can't grow up, that's their problem," he says.

"I'm not going away. Politics is a blood sport and I'm just going to get better at it."


Half of Chandler's problem is that he has no idea how to compromise. I've yet to see him in a contentious situation where he hasn't tried to bully and bluster his way through it - and then have a major hissy fit when it doesn't go his way.

To hear him talking about 'learning to play in the sandbox', it's almost laughable. It's not like his track record exactly shows us that kind of willingness to cooperate with anyone who dares disagree with him.

If the HarperCon$ are inviting him to run for a seat, they are either just as nutty as Chandler himself has proven to be, or they are oblivious.

Whatever vestiges of the old PC party that used to exist are long gone indeed.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chandler learning to play with others?

i don't think so...

Organization in middle of Collingwood Ethanol debate

http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1197915

Anonymous said...

The federal conservatives have a much more rigorous nomination vetting process than the provincial conservatives (i.e. Walter Wakula's disqualification in Calgary-West). If Chandler couldn't make it past the provincials, there's no way in hell he could make it past the feds.

MgS said...

The situation in Calgary West has its own stench of corruption, with the Party stepping in to protect an MP that Mr. Harper clearly feels a debt of obligation to.

I would not, for one moment, assume that Chandler could not be nominated if he had the right party powers backing him.

Anonymous said...

That would presume he has the right backers - or any backers beyond his 3 or 4 PGIB hacks.

MgS said...

When a party gives succor to Rob Anders, Ken Epp, Maurice Vellacott and has deep and public connections to Charles McVety, I wouldn't want to discount what kind of support Chandler might be able to garner.

Anonymous said...

The provincial PC party is about the same bent as the feds and they ran him out. $10 says Chandler has painted himself into the corner of fringe parties hereon in.

MgS said...

I hope you're right - but I'm not particularly confident in the current CPC party apparatus.

Anonymous said...

Yes the left wing Joe Clark who was in it only for himself is gone. The merger was a success in putting him to rest!

MgS said...

the left wing Joe Clark who was in it only for himself is gone

a. Clark was far from 'left wing'

b. With him, what little remained of the the progressive part of the party went too.

What remains is firmly stuck in a sadly idealized 1950s.

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