Visualize whirled peas
Good call:
The leader of the Green party says she won't sign the nomination papers of a Vancouver candidate who described the collapse of the twin towers in the terror attacks of 9-11 as 'beautiful.'But wait a minute: What happened to local democracy?... What about all those disenfranchised anti-imperialists and 9/11 conspiracy theorists in Vancouver Kingsway? Shouldn't they get the nutter they nominated? I see the hand of Karl Rove in all this...Green Leader Elizabeth May says non-violence is one of the party's fundamental principles.
4/15/2007
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At least, to the perverse credit of those in the riding, "this guy" was apparently acclaimed.
Or at least, that's what has been reported in some sources I've seen.
as far back as the Alliance days they've rejected the federal candidacy nomination of John Nunziata (of budget revolt fame) on the grounds of suspected collaboration with the KKK (or so i've heard?). so this isn't too unusual.
that said, this is not to say that party leaders should overuse their vetoes. Stephen Harper's decision to not sign Adam Richardson's nomination papers was seen as an unwise move for a time, and then Mike Allen later won Tobique-Mactaquac anyway.
regardless, nothing can really compare with the Liberal Party's excessively long history of parachuting candidates and bulldozing local riding associations.
"Hand of Rove"
LOL....the smirking chimp strikes again.
Potvin does speak some inconvenient truths
"not ready for prime time national politics"
"Potvin said the unflattering attention he has received likely made the Liberals nervous"
Although I have a difficult time believing the Liberal leadership read a National Post editorial, :->
What happened to "benefit of the doubt" Right call, a reversal and in enough time for there to have been a poll.
Maybe both parties will learn to regret the ties that bind now....of course according to the Elfin One no backroom Liberals were hurt in the making of this deal.
That doesnt mean it wasnt a backroom deal, just that M. Dion will wear it all on his own. 87 days left in the reign of the Sun King.
everybody should stay as far away from the Conrad Post (or the National Conrad, if you will) as possible these days, Stephen.
(i wonder if this comment will be deleted by Andrew out of dire needs to keep his job...?)
AC,
A serious answer to your semi-serious quip: "What about all those disenfranchised anti-imperialists and 9/11 conspiracy theorists in Vancouver Kingsway? Shouldn't they get the nutter they nominated?" The nutter in question is free to run as an independent candidate and all the tinfoil hatters are free to vote for him. It is one thing for a party to squelch local democracy by hand picking candidates, it is quite another for a party to exclude someone whose views are out of step with that party.
- DW
The Green's may no longer have a local village idiot, but they are still tied to outrageous policies such as those espoused by Earth Firsters! i.e. "Deep Ecology".
The media should look into some of the enviro-wingnuttiness that still passes muster within the Green party.
To mis-quote Pauls Wells, we'll all be running on urine power.
Tomm
Blast you Andrew Coyne! You've made me reevaluate my morally superior view of democratic freedoms!
Didn't you realize I was living in a happy little bubble here?
Slightly but only slightly off topic....here is the infamous Time magazine article by AC from 2000
http://www.andrewcoyne.com/essays/Magazines/Time%20Canada/Time_United%20Alternative.rtfd/TXT.html
What strikes me is not the incorrect prediction on the emergence of a new party but by how narrow the number of the required joint candidates needed to be...less than 10% at the time based on the electoral politics that were in amber at the time.
Clearly the river of time flowed on. But the reasoning that drove this was desperation that there were two loser parties who could never gain power.
It holds true today that limiting your offer isnt smart....it is giving up and ceding ground. It is placing yourself in the loser category. And yes I am aware that King did it and it has appeared a number of times in by elections. But that just makes the point that it has not been recent and only proposed when there is a fear (and fear is what guides it) that there is no other option.
86 days left in the reign of the Sun King Stephane.
Hello Andrew,
The little bit of sunlight presently shining on Potvin should help you understand the spontaneous wave of protest about David Emerson (L, Vancouver-Kingsway) crossing the floor and joining the Harper cabinet. The spontaneous protestors consisted largely of Kevin Potvin and his semblables, of which there are many in the area. (I wouldn't say friends because I'm not sure he actually has any friends, or indeed if these people can really be anyone's friend.) Reflect on how these moonbats must feel to be represented by a Conservative. I don't know about you, but it gives me a warm feeling inside.
Stephen,
What was 90 days away and is now 86? Just wondering if the figure was arbitrary or if it coincides with something?
Nothing specific other than 90 days seemed a reasonable time for the Liberals to organize and dump Stephane.
I have no inside knowledge. But word is leaking that many people are unhappy with M Dion. It is yet to be clear how widely circulated the decision on Central Novacaine was. I get the impression that it is being setup as the Leaders decision without broad consultation.
That means he is being setup for a fall.
90 days is fast, assuming the Liberals decide to act. If they dont it will be a slow bleed like Clark for the PC's.
Bottom line, just saying the clock is ticking, 90 days 150 days doesnt really matter, only in terms of whether the Liberals want a Spring election or not. Some elements may push for it to get the excuse.
"Infamous"? I don't know, I think parts of it stand up rather well, seven years later:
"...a new party could be formed out of the two extant only by turning their respective platforms to mush. That may not be much of a switch for the Tories, but for hardcore Reformers it must have been quite a shock to learn, not only that their party might be folding its tent, but that the new party erected in its place would, in deference to central Canada and centrist politics, avoid any mention of conservative social values, jettison such basic Reform beliefs as the equality of the provinces, and take to its bosom crypto-separatists from Quebec ..."
"Infamous" was said only in that it was referenced before, not in the sense that it was to be held up to ridicule. You were a little definitive on the "it will never happen" part.
I think you predicted properly what needed to happen if there was to be a single conservative party that had any hope of government. At least while Ontario holds 55% of the Non Quebec vote.
The recent ebbing of Seperatist passions has allwed the emergence of a conservative segment to emerge in Quebec. Remove the nationalist part and you see a similar amalgam of conservative social values and conservative economics (your hero M Bernier)
That is relevant because if the Quebec conservatives exists and stop voting Bloc then you can actually pull out a majority government by being a 1/3 minority in Quebec and Ontario and then add on the Western core and the Atlantic legacy. Without Quebec conservatives you need to be more centrist than the Wetsern core feels comfortable with.
Its tough, I dont have to live with things I wrote 7 years ago...so tip of the hat from me.
Stephen ... Only 90 days to an election ?! This is unfair !
It's hardly enough time for the online community to thoroughly mock Cityoen Dion. Especially when practically none of the main stream media helps us out. The left had Doris Day to kick around for over a year ! We demand equal time. This is unfair !
"Visualize whirled peas"
maybe "Kermit in a blender" is an easier mental picture to formulate.
Andrew:
Your prediction seems to have come to fruition, and a lot quicker than I'm sure even you anticipated.
I read in the Globe and Mail today that May is now putting the squeeze onto Jack Layton. She's hoping to score a similar deal with him that she made with Dion in the hopes that the NDP won't run a candidate in Central Nova. Layton won't have it, and May cries that he cares more about partisanship than about "putting the country before party".
She then launches into her standard line which posits that the Greens, NDP, and Liberals are over on the "progressive" side, and by contrast, the Conservatives are over on the non-progressive (scary, Republican, neocon, take your pick) side.
Incidentally, I think the now-axed Green candidate who cheered on 9/11 would have won favour with the Green-Liberal coalition if Chretien were still PM.
AC, what do you think of this?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070416.QUEBEC16/TPStory/Front
Here's Potvin's response to the recent criticism:
http://republic-news.org/archive/161-repub/161_response.htm
Also, I agree with DW. Potvin is free to run as an independent; and May is free to not sign the nomination papers of someone whose views are not in accordance with that of the party whose banner he wants to run under.
(As an aside, it might help to remember democracy literally means 'rule by the mob'.)
If we had just voted Natural Law back in 2000 we'd have peace, harmony and 10,000 Yogic Flyers bouncing around Parliament Hill generating a force field which would have protected North America from the 911 attacks. If we had voted them in back in 1997 we'd be on Yogic Flyer Program 2.0 by now and that shield would have extended to Iraq and Afghanistan and maybe even Europe and we'd all be blissing out right now on Booster Juice and TM. Something to think about as you all mock The Green Party.
"If we had just voted Natural Law back in 2000 we'd have peace, harmony and 10,000 Yogic Flyers bouncing around Parliament Hill generating a force field which would have protected North America from the 911 attacks. If we had voted them in back in 1997 we'd be on Yogic Flyer Program 2.0 by now"
Sorry Gabriel . . that program had a major bug in it - something called "gravity" that kept making the program "crash"
Stephen,
Bourque has some juicy details that seem to confirm your suspicions.
Wonder why the media is ignoring the story of Ray Heard, when Carol Jamieson was front page news for wanting to have Harper dumped as leader.
Who knows....slower newsday, better connections...don't know if Heard has less credibility than Jamieson or not.
I still think if the threat of an election recedes than Dion will wake up next to a horses head, metaphorically of course.
The reality is, having been on the Con side of this. Changing the leader wont make a difference. The Liberals need to lose the election so they can do proper soul searching. Get some policies and reorient themselves without the smell of potential power clouding their judegment.
And whoever found that quote on May in her leadership race saying she would never set aside Candidates....nicely done....yes she does politics differently.