Dear Mr. Harper:
Look, I get it, okay? I wasn’t born yesterday. I know it’s really difficult for you to push a conservative agenda while limited to a minority. As such, I know I have to wait for the useless gun registry to be abolished. But do I have to also wait for democracy? In my own backyard?
I fully understand that the majority Opposition in Ottawa not only wants to beat conservatives, but wants to destroy the Conservative Party of Canada. As such, I appreciate that I will have to wait a little longer to see the kind of change that will guarantee my children won’t have to live in a high-taxation nanny state. But surely the issue of democracy at the local level has been ironed out. Hasn’t it?
Stockwell Day, Chuck Strahl and Jim Cummins all circumvented the democratic process during nominations in their ridings. Remember when Jean Chrétien used to select candidates himself and tell local party members to get stuffed? I’m glad you don’t do the same thing Mr. Prime Minister, but these outgoing members of your cabinet did the exact same thing!
Day, Strahl and Cummins all knew they were retiring long before they announced it publicly. In fact, word has it that Day reported his intentions to you as early as Christmas time. So why did they wait until we were face-to-face with a non-confidence vote in Parliament to announce their retirements?
The Conservative Party Constitution says nominations should be open for 21 days, and that once contestants have put their names forward there will follow a 42-day campaign period so members can learn about the contestants and decide whom to vote for. Instead, in all three cases, the entire process was less than a week long from start to finish! No wonder Strahl’s inexperienced son got in, and no wonder Day’s equally inexperienced friend and party insider Dan Albas did as well.
More people were turned away than were allowed to run! All those turned away are highly respected members of the business community, each a true commonsense conservative! But each was stonewalled by Doug Sharpe, a party man who is president of Day’s riding association and, conveniently, was also Day’s staffer. Talk about a huge conflict of interest; Sharpe stymied no less than four party members (that we know of), denying their right to even have their names stand.
What we’re left with now is thin gruel, a guy who ran for local council on a platform “to listen to the concerns of the people and to take those concerns to council,” but who three years later didn’t list a single thing he actually accomplished while on council in his Conservative nomination campaign literature. That’s what inexperience looks like.
This is unconscionable. It’s undemocratic! It might even be illegal. After all, what right does a party staffer have to act as the gate-keeper for his former boss and his boss-to-be? Great way to protect your job, right? In case you needed to be told, this is what electoral fraud looks like Mr. Prime Minister.
Day, Strahl and Cummins orchestrated their retirement announcements so as to ensure highly limited fields in the races to replace them. Make no mistake, this will hurt the Conservative Party of Canada more than anything the Opposition might try to throw at us. After all, democracy itself is at stake.
Count me out on this election my friend. I resign.
Mischa Popoff, Former Nomination Contestant for the Conservative Party (BC Southern Interior), Former Fundraising Chair for Stockwell Day (Okanagan Coquihalla), Osoyoos