Sunday, October 21, 2007

Defiant

The bully has met his match:
A Conservative riding executive in northern Nova Scotia is refusing to resign over its contentious nomination of ousted MP Bill Casey and instead will seek a new mandate from local members.

Scott Armstrong, president of the Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley riding association, says national council president Don Plett told the board members today they could either choose a different candidate or resign.

But he says the board will do neither, and instead will hold an annual general meeting next month to let local members voice their opinion.

Armstrong says the board still wants Casey as the candidate, and he expects local party members will agree at next month's meeting.

Harper's "my way or the highway" approach has led to more acrimony. Maybe we will have two Conservative candidates in the next election? I find this whole affair amusing, because all Harper had to do was offer an olive branch to Casey, in the new agreement aftermath, and he would be well on his way to repairing the damage in Nova Scotia. Instead, the political tin ear, with a dash of vindicative stubborness, has undermined any agreement, and ensured future embarrassment for the Conservatives. Self-inflicted wound.

10 comments:

Robert McClelland said...

Looks to me like someone is having leadership difficulties. :-)

Tomm said...

Steve,

I see you spent some time today, sharpening your tongue!

Ouch!

Tomm

Anonymous said...

turns out the executive was suspended for refusing to give in

ottlib said...

And now Mr. Harper is well beyond the point of no return.

He can no longer climb down from his position without looking stupid and humiliating himself.

His only choice now is to throw out the riding executive, make Mr. Casey a bigger political martyr that he already is and make it that much more difficult for any Conservative to win in Nova Scotia and perhaps the Maritimes at large.

But let us remember that Stephen Harper is a political genius.

Anonymous said...

What are the terms Mr. Casey has been given in order to be accepted back into the Conservative caucus?

Tomm said...

ottlib,

Right. So Harper has made a rather clear and crisp point to his caucus about being part of his team. He apparently was willing to lose a bad soldier instead of losing good soldiers following a bad example.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if Dion was able to command that kind of discipline?

Or are we now seeing Dion's weakness as an electoral strength?

Good luck with that.

Tomm

Steve V said...

"So Harper has made a rather clear and crisp point to his caucus about being part of his team. He apparently was willing to lose a bad soldier instead of losing good soldiers following a bad example."

But, the bad soldier was ahead of the curve, because Harper has acknowledged the error with his new agreement. All Harper has done is show that Casey was right to point to the flaws, standing on principle, vindicated by the government's subsequent actions.

Christian Conservative said...

Real simple... the Party will de-certify the EDA. Same thing would happen if it were a Liberal EDA.

Steve V said...

"Real simple... the Party will de-certify the EDA."

So much for all that grassroots nonsense Conservatives love to spew.

lance said...

Steve, the CPC hasn't been about grass roots since it was the CA. The only things grass roots are the nominations, party leader and policy convention.

But then I suspect you knew that.