Democracy, As Rob Anders Would Write It

Rob "Sleepy" Anders must be feeling the heat from having competition running against him for the nomination in Calgary Signal Hill.

Yesterday, he threatened to sue Ron Liepert over claims that Liepert's campaign made that Anders' campaign was making misleading phone calls to constituents.

Liepert responded with a statement that says Elections Canada is investigating the incident. 

"We've filed complaints based on specific instances of calls from the Anders' campaign phone number claiming to be the Liepert campaign," he said in an email.

Today, he comes trotting out to claim that the dreaded "Red Tories" are trying to hijack his "True Blue Conservative Party", complete with a bunch of "Wanted, Dead Or Alive" style leaflets naming the people that Anders thinks are "temporary Tories".

At a news conference on Thursday Anders revealed the first three names on his list — former federal Liberal candidate and nursing professor Janice Kinch, radio personality Buzz Bishop and Greg Schmidt, former president of the Energy Council of Canada.  

Anders characterized his battle with Liepert as a struggle for the soul of the Conservative Party. He said the political process is being hijacked by people who are purchasing Conservative memberships just so that they can cast a vote in support of his challenger.

Considering that the CPC has moved heaven and earth to protect Anders in past nomination skirmishes, I imagine he's feeling more than a little heat since the Party is somewhat cornered on the matter this time around, having committed to "open" nomination contests for all MPs who haven't faced a nomination race since 2011.



This leaves Anders having to play every trick in the playbook and any new ones he can dream up.  Of course, what Anders really doesn't like is the idea that anyone is selling memberships to the party in that riding besides him.  For years, he's managed to make Calgary West his own little private members' club of like-minded supporters.

Calling Ron Liepert a "Red Tory" is laughable, in my opinion.  Considering what Liepert did while sitting as Minister of Health in this province, he hardly constitutes "liberal leaning".  Of course, in Rob Anders' little bubble, anybody who isn't an American GOP Tea Party style nut job is "left wing". Considering he got his start in politics as a heckler for the GOP, this shouldn't come as any surprise really.

Anders thinks that democracy is only democracy when he can write the rules so that he wins.  The rest of the citizens can go to hell as far as he is concerned.

[Update 27/3/2014 1:13 PM]:
This story is moving so fast that it changes just as I hit publish:  It seems that the party mandarins at CPC HQ aren't too impressed with Anders' shenanigans on the phone.
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