The Media vs. The Reality
The fact is that Conservatives have never been this united in over two decades. We backed Stephen Harper overwhelmingly. And we are ready to govern in the next election.
I voted for same-sex marriage in the end, and voted in favour of the resolution to not introduce any legislation regarding abortion. The fact is, one went my way, and one did not. Does this mean there is a huge rift in the party?
No, because, despite the actions of the very tiny minority, the fact is that debate was respectful and we are far more united in our common cause: to defeat the corrupt Liberals!
What an amazing experience! What a terrific closing to the convention! We are ready.
Montreal English News
One point about the media here. Main cable in my hotel room: no CBC Newsworld, no CTV Newsnet, no CPAC. If you are watching the news in Victoria, you probably know more about the media spin on the conference than I do.
I took French to grade 12. I love the language. However, when I try to speak French, I often fail miserably. Even when I speak it successfully, I can’t always understand what is being said to me in response. En français, je suis tres stupide!
In short, the French news isn’t working for me. I’m feeling news junky withdrawal. Thank goodness for the Internet!
Delegate Allocation
So far, not much has been contentious. The media seems to be interested in the delegate selection process. The workshop for Constitution was packed to the brim. MP Scott Reid’s proposal to move to allocate the number of delegates for EDAs based on membership numbers (from the current 12 delegates per EDA) was passed in the workshop, and will now (potentially) move to the plenary session tomorrow.
MP Peter Mackay voted against the proposal. So, of course, the media will spin this as “old” PC/CA divisions. Actually, I think it is more of a regional issue, and one that will become less pronounced as our party membership grows from coast to coast to coast.
In Victoria, we endorsed Mr. Reid’s proposal. We had 17 people who were willing to run for the 10 elected positions, and if the other 2 were not appointed, there would have been 19. We had more members show up to our meeting (well over 100), probably, then many ridings have members at all. There were at least a few other people I know that did not run because they didn’t like the prospect of losing and/or they figured they’d give others the chance to go. We could easily have had 20 or more delegates.
I heard from more than one person what a shame it was that all these keen delegates could not go, yet, if they were fortunate enough to live in a riding where there were not as many members, their chances of going would go up substantially.
This is only one side, of course.
We also need to build this party in provinces where our numbers are short, and cannot have keen members in less “membered” ridings feel like their area is not sufficiently represented.
While it was really unfortunate that we had to turn people away from Victoria, perhaps a fair solution would be to have an agreeable amnesty on this issue to allow other regions to catch up with their membership.
We’ll see what happens.
Hospitality … Sweet!
We registered at Noon today. What keeners we are.
B.C. National Council candidates Ray Leitch (www.rayleitch.ca) and Byng Giraud (www.byng.com) were out in force, with “Ray & Byng” buttons everywhere. I’m very excited to see such great folks standing for a non-paying, yet so important position within our Party.
For lunch, we went to Schwartz’s for an amazing smoked beef sandwich.
Opening Ceremonies at 6:00pm.
It seems, thereafter, that there are about 17,347 hospitality suites. I’ll get to them all and report later (or tomorrow).
I’m particularly looking forward to the Brian Mitchell campaign suite … and not just because of the open bar. I have publicly endorsed Mitchell for Chair of the Party (he was vice-chair). His website is www.mitchell2005.ca.
Youth Wings Clipped?
To paraphrase that great Canadian, Bryan Adams…
“Everywhere I go, kids wanna talk.”
After the Liberal re-enactment of “Lord of the Flies” a couple weeks ago, I’m sure some are worried about those Conservative kids.
Having fought for some sort of an organized Youth Wing back in the Refoooorm Party, myself, I am quite sympathetic. We kept voting in favour of one, but by 50-60% where 2/3rds majority was the requirement.
So it seems that SSM and “a” are not going to be nearly as tense in debate as the decision on what to do with the youth. Maybe we’ll find ourselves standing up for the traditional definition of “big tent sandbox.”
Angry Liberal Youth
It seems that the Liberal Youth now have an anti-Harper website, www.muzzlegate.ca (Richard Diamond) and www.mrmuzzle.ca (Ivan Watson) as an alias.
Richard Diamond, according to his public registration information, is available at diamondcut20@hotmail.com.
If anyone else would like to know more about who owns a domain name, you can do so at http://whois.cira.ca/public.
Baby’s First Photoshop™
If there was ever any evidence that there is not much of a movement to remove Harper as leader, it was the amateurish spam received by some delegates, yours truly included.
It seems two anonymous artistes code-named Fred Schultz and Ivan Zimmer have decided to use their art to in a poorly executed and equally vague criticism of Harper’s leadership.
Personally, I have no idea what these people are getting at. But to aid their fame in a manner most unwarranted, I have posted the pictures below:
Wow, this childish attempt at discrediting the leader has me convinced.
The “Civil” Debate
It seems that one side of the polarized debate on what brand of morality the Government should impose on society in defining the word “marriage” has a new website!
It is www.conservativesforequalmarriage.ca.
I remain of the opinion that the word “marriage” should be defined by society and religious institutions, not the Government or the Courts. This despite the fact that it seems my opinion is in the 1% minority on this not-that-important issue.
When push comes to shove (hopefully not literally), I’ll probably reluctantly vote with the “equal marriage” crowd (and probably lose).
Question of the day!
Who do you love most? The libertarian, the neocon, the socon, the rubicon, or the red tory?
Actually, I just threw in rubicon. I don’t know any Conservative who defines themselves as this (yet).
Marijuana?
Am I the only one who still thinks the War on Drugs is a miserable failure?
I received a petition from Betty Hinton, MP that reads to this effect:
We, the undersigned residents of Canada, draw the attention of the House to the following:
THAT the tragic deaths of four R.C.M.P. officers reinforces our belief that decriminalizing the possession of marijuana will only serve to increase the number of grow operations throughout our country.
THAT the number of Canadian youth using marijuana will increase throughout our country.
THAT the use of marijuana damages the health and well being of our citizens.
THAT the decriminalization of possession of marijuana signals to the criminal element that Canada is open for business and soft on crime.
THEREFORE, your petitioners call upon Parliament to withdraw Bill C-17 and any legislation designed to decriminalize the possession and use of marijuana, provide increased funding to the R.C.M.P. and Canadian police forces to ensure the elimination of marijuana grow operations, impose a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in a federal penitentiary, without parole eligibility, for convicted grow operation owners, and finance this initiative by re-directing the funding of the ineffective $2 billion long-gun registry into a program to eliminate grow-ops in Canada.
Don’t accuse me of being insensitive to the deaths of the officers. However, if prohibition of marijuana wasn’t around in the first place, then they would be alive today.
Rather than imposing tougher penalties, I believe the strongest action to end organized crime in this area would be to legalize and regulate marijuana, much as we do now with alcoholic beverages. This action would seriously hurt organized crime, and free up substantial police resources to fight the remaining areas where they operate (i.e. illegal gun trade, human slavery, etc.). Additional resources could also be directed toward fighting crime from taxes collected on marijuana sales.
I agree with Hinton on one point. I am opposed to decriminalization. Decriminalization does nothing to remove the criminal element from the industry. While it would result in fewer criminal records, it certainly doesn’t go to the root of the problem. As long as growing and distributing marijuana remains a crime, people who buy marijuana will be buying it from criminals.
Liberal Convention? Part II
So, now it is news. I stand corrected.
You know the old saying … the media is to Liberals, as cheese is to wine. (Actually, I just made that up, but found it sufficiently amusing, if only to myself.)
Anyway, thank goodness the Liberals have discussed so many important pressing issues facing our country, like … umm … well, stuff, you know.
While today’s show was heart-warming, it certainly wasn’t electric … YET! I will wait impatiently for the real bling bling that I KNOW is to come. I bet Mr. Dithers will say something amazing and inspiring. Now, I’m no speech writer, but here’s what I’d have Paul Martin say …
“Thank thanks thank you. I, I, I. We. Canadians. We, I, we. Canada. Liberal Party members. It’s time we, uh. Mes amis, la victoire pour le Charter. We, I, Canada, uh, will defend the, um, Charter. We, us, we. You, you. Thank thanks thank you.”
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