Not and April Fools Joke - Sadly this is true

During the last federal election our region’s conservatives were robbed of any real chance to vet, hold accountable and nominate a candidate from a competitive field. http://www.medhatblog.com/?p=478#comments

The criticism I had with the process last time is after watching thousands of memberships expire in our riding - and having a surprise vacancy for the seat when Monte suddenly left his post - The Conservatives disallowed people renewing their membership from voting. Giving our riding’s nominee Lavar Payne the mandate of only 200+ people heading into the election.

If as a Conservative in our region you happened to think that process was a tad unfair (like I do) you will love the new anti democratic model! Released last week the Conservative Party now says that the only way to force a nomination in a riding is by having the support of 2/3’rds of the membership ask for an open nomination. Read that again – 2/3rds of the TOTAL MEMBERSHIP, not 2/3rd of those who cast a vote.

How can a democratic party actively shut down the grassroots process of nominations? There is nothing democratic about counting the people who don’t vote as being in support of the incumbent.

“This is setting a very bad precedent,” said Lori Williams, a political scientist with Calgary’s Mount Royal College. “It looks. … undemocratic if not anti-democratic, intended to shut down grassroots participation, rather than to encourage it.”

Suppose we had 5000 members in Medicine Hat – and ballots were sent out to members to poll and see if the desired an open nomination process. The votes come back like this
2000 vote in favour of having a nomination process.

7 vote for not having the process.

Under the Conservative Party of Canada riding association policy – those 7 votes carry the day …because all the people who didn’t vote get added to their total – and they only need to have 1/3rd support.

In our last Provincial election 60% of Albertans didn’t vote – would it be democratic to hand those 60% of votes to the incumbent? Why go through the charade of putting a process in place – if that process is by design unwinnable? - Medicine Hat has an MP elected by his riding with a little over 200 votes. It took 200+ people to make him the party nominee in the last election with a very limited field– but it would take thousands of voters and a 2/3rds majority to unseat him?

A closed process, 200+ votes and he is now cemented in place for life.

I have nothing against Mr Payne per se – but the process around his selection and now acclamation for life stinks.

Small CBC Story

Today as I head to the polls to cast my vote - I am keeping Stephan Stock heavy in my thoughts. He is the young Medicine Hat soldier who was cut down in Afghanistan this past summer. If we think hard on the struggle that people around the world go through to vote and the sacrifice that Stephan Stock made to safeguard our freedoms – there should be no barrier too big that prevents us from casting a thoughtful vote for our country today.

We have “open” elections – which means that all you have to do is show up at the voting station with your ID and you can vote today …it doesn’t matter if you pre registered 20 or 60 days ago, If you are a Canadian citizen Stephan Stock and the many brave people like him have paid all our dues. Employers must give you time today to vote - take advantage! There is probably not a single citizen of Medicine Hat who fears for their safety by voting today – and almost all of us will take that point for granted as we contemplate our own federal election. Fact is Canada is a great country, and we all very lucky to live here and have the ultimate say in our government.

In addition to thinking hard about the Stock family, my thoughts are moving around what I believe in. In each election I always try to clearly establish my viewpoint – What , in my view, is the best direction for our leaders. With that in mind I carefully choose the candidate who best represents those ideals.

I would categorize myself as a democratic idealist. I believe in the process of democracy, I am tough minded and uncompromising on that – or at least I strive to be. In that regard our local conservative party greatly disappointed me in the early days of the election - by doing the end run around the ideals of an open party nomination to fast track Lavar Payne as our candidate. It was wrong. Now I don’t know Lavar Payne from Adam – I am sure he is a good guy, but I strongly disagree with the process by which he was nominated.

So what do I believe in? Do I simply vote for the colour blue, even if they stop representing the ideals I felt so strongly about?

In terms of policy – I don’t subscribe to the notion that one policy is always appropriate; to me it’s obvious that the leadership required during the great depression might reasonably differ from the leadership during periods of great prosperity. Sometimes people get so charged up supporting a particular ideology that they suspend critically analyzing the situation. I have always found it peculiar for example that people who so passionately discount any “liberal” policy – when asked about Canadian life vs American life – often proudly proclaim our universal health care as something that sets us apart from our neighbours to the south. Truth is, there is no ideology that is 100% perfect when it comes to deciding what is in the best interest of our citizens. If the car always turned right, or always turned left …it still would never get us anywhere. In a sense, what I am seeking is leadership – which candidate will support my ideals while still demonstrating the ability to lead in the many unpredictable situations that our government will find itself dealing with. In other words - who will deliver what is best for the people.

Generally speaking I believe in fiscal conservatism, I believe in investing in our military and understand that a thriving business community is essential to our country and our community’s ongoing prosperity. I also realize that I am one injury or illness away from needing the help of my countrymen if I were unable to work, or needed treatment – and I believe in a compassionate community where people take responsibility for themselves, but still makes room to take responsibility for each other as well.

So which candidate best represents my viewpoints?

That’s a tough question. I respect Dean Shock, especially with his involvement with the Blog. I think all of our leaders and people seeking leadership will someday recognize the power of the net in terms of reaching voters…If they cut off door knocking by 30 mins a day – they would probably reach additional thousands of voters. The truth is the blog wont win or lose an election for a candidate - but discussion online will impact the thoughts of thousands of voters. Candidate participation (or lack there of) can help shape that discussion in either direction… It can certainly play a key part in people making a decision.

In Dean’s case – while I respect him establishing himself as the Conservative protest vote, and I do not question his passion or even his commitment…I am not convinced of his leadership. To win a seat as an independent is an uphill battle – he would have to be an extraordinarily popular and convincing community leader to pull that off…and for me, in such a short election he didn’t do it. I give him a bit more slack than some of his detractors for some of the early “antics” of his Youtube video. I think it was a risqué idea that was poorly executed. He is a good guy, a little quirky – but stood up against something that was wrong …and for that I thank him. I will say this …his discussion on the blog added much more depth to his candidacy for me than I initially thought he had when I first heard he was running.

No – the candidate that most represents my ideals, and as importantly – demonstrated the cool headed leadership I think our country needs in such interesting and difficult times …is Stephan Harper.

A trained economist Mr Haper has handled the financial crisis well (in my view) when the whole market and world is panicking - Mr Harper demonstrated a cool headed and logical approach to the crisis…and in all probability it has cost him in this election – perhaps even a majority or the government itself. Truth is, what is needed to calm a panicky situation is not desperate rhetoric or billions of extra dollars spend on nationalizing everything …but strong steady leadership. Leaders cant desperately run around like a chicken with his head cut off. They need to lead and instill confidence. EMS workers arriving at the scene of an accident are the same …if they arent cool and in control - who is?

So today I am going to cast my vote on the hope that Mr Harper will earn the mandate to lead our country.

I support the Green Party getting more seats and a place at the leadership table – I don’t agree with them enough to govern and I would hope it didn’t come at the expense of Mr Harpers government – Thus I can’t throw a protest vote their way as I strongly considered. The stakes are simply too high for a conservative thinking voter like myself to let our seat fall with Mr Harper so close to a 2nd government or even a majority …

Of course by default that means I will be voting for Lavar Payne - even though I think his nomination and election were not very accessible to Conservative voters. I count this more of a vote for Harper than a vote for My Payne.

I hope Mr Payne and the Conservative party will review the nomination process that so clearly failed the conservatives of Medicine Hat. I hope that the Conservative party will correct the nomination process in the future so that they will be OPEN, transparent and democratic and that Medicine Hat gets the opportunity in the future to choose the best possible candidate for our region. Changing the system so that membership will not be closed during such important times in the future. Our community deserves that…and my future support will ride on that failure being corrected. Hopefully the membership will get a chance to pick our own representative. The election could have gone a long ways to healing this rift - but the campaign was certainly not much more open or transparent. I wanted to see more access for voters at various forums, not just the old fashioned ones.

So again – with thoughts of appreciation to the Stock family – and the knowledge that I get the honor of casting my vote anonymously and in complete safety – 1 Danger Mouse vote goes to the Conservatives.

If you agree or strongly disagree with me - thats great! Just make sure you cast a thoughtful vote today…on that there is probably no disagreement …or excuses!

Dean Shock submitted this previosly - his position on health care issues in this election - and he has agreed to answer moderated questions. This forum is open to any candidate in the election so long as they agree to answer respectful questions from our readers. - DM

Dear MedHatBlog

Healthcare utilizes approximately 50% of our tax revenue (including education) equivalent to our tax revenue that comes from Oil & Gas in Alberta. Analysts believe our Oil & Gas Royalty will drop considerably. This is very concerning, as when the tax revenue digresses so will healthcare.

I have been studying healthcare over the past two years with Dr. Patch Adams (Hunter) and his colleagues. Both Canada and the US have the same issue, we are paying extravagantly more and receiving less. There is no one fix. We need to implement models such as having mothers trained in common illnesses and able to recognize serious warning signs; to performing tests for strep throat and receiving antibiotics without a trip to the doctor’s office.

Our province along with many others have been playing hard ball with the unions in negotiating how healthcare is to be ran. This approach is the wrong approach and has led us down a path that the solution is always more money.

Dr. Patch Adams (Hunter) and his colleagues believe that we need to work with health professionals who truly care about us! Those whose highest priority is us and not the size of the bill attached to the service. These are the health professionals that are willing to develop the models like teaching mothers the basics in healthcare, which will help reduce strain on our health system and help create sustainability!

Health professionals that care about us are identifiable. An example of this are the doctors who are willing to work on more than one issue in a single visit, it is the nurse who is willing to cross the union picket lines to help us in a time of need, and it is the surgeon who explains diet and lifestyle before cutting out a useless organ that actually wasn’t that useless.

Healthcare can be fixed, but we need to use those whose top priority is us to fix it!

Sincerely,
Dean Shock

According to this newspaper clip going around today, Monte Solberg tried to charm a staff member and she complained about sexual harassment. This lead to his retiring.

I am very skeptical of this as it is from Frank’s page six, but crazier things have happened.

Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

Click on clipping for larger view

I have had some good spirited debate and e-mails from people on the blog asking me to clarify my position on the Conservative nomination for the Medicine Hat riding. Essentially my concern is that the end result has robbed conservative members of the chance to vote and participate in the nomination process. There is nothing fair, transparent or even democratic about what has happened in Medicine Hat since the federal election was announced.

Outgoing MP Monte Solberg has been the ridings candidate for voters holding conservative ideals for the past 16 years – even pre dating his election as MP. Needless to say there has been no candidate nomination process in our region for over 15 years! The last time there was any reason for members to vote was during the merger of the Alliance party with the PC’s – and Stephen Harper’s leadership bid.

At that time I seem to recall there being Conservative members in our region in substantially more numbers. Its hard to confirm the exact number today – but my recollection was that the Medicine Hat riding had approx 4500 members. Since there has been nothing to vote on most of those members let their card expire. In fact somewhere in the neighborhood of 82% of them did. Most people involved in politics know that it is not uncommon to be able to pick up your membership card at any time and participate in the leadership process if you so desire. It has been presented by some of my esteem blogging compatriots that allowing last min members to vote is somehow undemocratic…

Let me direct your attention to the provincial PC’s. By the way - if you are interested in supporting the Alberta PC party they are having their annual general meeting in Jasper Oct 3-5 where you can vote on issues – memberships will be sold at the door and you can fully participate in the process, including leadership if you so desire.

In fact according to the provincial PC Constitution – anybody is eligible to vote or run so long as they are a member in good standing ON THE DAY they file their nomination papers. Which means that you can walk in off the street pay your $5.00 and file your papers to run, for any position in the party including leader.

http://www.albertapc.ab.ca/public/data/documents/pcconstitutionmay2007.pdf

Enshrined in the Provincial PC constitution is the following:

“Reasonable public notice of the time, date and location of each nomination…and the nomination process must be fair, OPEN, and democratic”

Open – as in, open to all people, there is no 60 day lock out policy that bars new members from participating in a process that was unannounced at the 60 day mark.

This is the norm of party voting in politics. It is absurd to pretend that members of the PC party in Medicine Hat, that have nothing to vote on for years – are somehow negligent for not maintaining their membership. They would have every reasonable expectation that they could buy their membership before they voted. It happens all the time.

Lets review the time line of events for the Medicine Hat constituency

Sept 14, 2008 – Federal Election was called
Sept 12, 2008 – The first announcement that Monte Solberg would not seek re-election
Aug 24th, 2008 – The cut off date that Medicine Hat region Conservative members had to renew their membership to vote…(note this cut off date is 18 days previous to any announcement that there would possibly be a vote)
July 16, 2008 – The retroactive cut off date for potential nomination candidates to renew their membership – 60 days prior to any announcement that there would possibly be a vote.
Remember – we aren’t talking about a couple of members here – we are talking about the vast MAJORITY of them. Any process that excludes the majority of citizens is the furthest thing from democratic.

Earlier I posted the information from the Provincial Conservative constitution – examination of the Federal Conservative constitution is really not much different – judge for yourself if Medicine Hat’s constituency office has maintained the open and democratic principles they have preaching in our community for decades.

The Conservative Party will operate in a manner accountable and responsive to its members

Also to note that there is nothing in the Federal Conservative Party constitution which claims they MUST implement a minimum membership length to participate in the process – and certainly nothing outlining a 20 day / 60 day cut off point. Only that they MAY set a minimum period for membership participation. In light of the fact that it is the MP, not the voter who held out until the 11th hour – it is decidedly undemocratic and un Conservative to have the majority of members frozen out of the candidacy process. A greater number of previous members were EXCLUDED from the process than were eligible to participate.

The Conservative party promised better – and the Medicine Hat riding has been a loyal supporter for decades. We deserved better, we deserved the right to an open and democratic leadership process that allowed the voters, not the outgoing MP, to decide who would represent our Conservative ideals in our region.

http://www.conservative.ca/media/20050319-CPCConstitution.pdf

As most of you know, Dean Shock is running as an independent in the upcoming election.  You need to watch this whole video.  Bitter? do ya think.

Thanks Fred!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j4WAVu21DQ[/youtube]

With the election coming up, we thought it might be nice to try and make it easier for voters to get familiar with the policies and platforms of the parties. Now certainly I am biased as being a supporter of the Green Party, but I though I’d start with them. It’s part of the perks of being able to post on a blog like this one, I guess.

Anyways, the party’s website is http://www.greenparty.ca/, and I’d highly recommend checking it out. It’s quite well put together and comprehensive. In the past, the local candidate has been Mr. Kevin Dodd for the last few elections, but I’m not 100% certain that he will be the candidate again. Their leader is Mrs. Elizabeth May, who has a personal information website and blog at http://www.elizabethmay.ca/.

The Greens announced their full election platform this morning, which you can download off of their website. For convenience, I have put all 4 relevant documents into a single zipped file that you can download. There is the election platform, their full policy, plus a simple and a full budget.

Lavar Payne was voted in by Conservative party members tonight. 261 votes were cast…well below the 800 or so members there apparently are.

Thanks Joe!

Yes, I know, he still has to be elected.  But doesnt anyone really think that he will not win?

davidakin.blogware.com
Payne is 62 years old?

The big meeting was tonight, and the lines were drawn.  You must be a card carrying conservative for more than 60 days to be nominated to run for the Federal election.  Apparently there are only 800 conservative members in this riding (thousands a couple years ago).  And I think you must have your membership for more than twenty days if you want to vote for who should represent our riding.  The vote is tentatively set for this coming sunday.

These are the usual guidelines, but the party could have chosen to open it up if they wanted.  The Conservative Party probably does not want a nasty competition going on during the election for the incumbent seat.

As Alderman Thompson didnt renew his membership this last year, he can not run.  Lavare (spelling? Monte’s right hand guy) is the obviously choice, but a rumour is that Dean Shock will throw his hat in.

*Jeremy sent me the following comment:

Due to the short nomination process and some of the nomination rules, I have decided that this is not the right time to pursue the recently vacated MP seat of Monte Solberg. I have too many things I am working on here at the municipal  level with the citizens of Medicine Hat to leave at the moment. This has been a great few days though, and I am overwhelmed with the support that I have received to support me in this venture. For now I will support our chosen Conservative candidate, whomever that may be. I hope to continue my political at a higher level of government in the future.

I consider myself a conservative on most issues, but this really has to stretch the patience of even the most ardent supporters.

Here we are 2 days into a Federal election and Medicine Hat still has no candidate running for the incumbent seat. In Federal politics there is a blur between voting for someone to represent your community specifically and voting your support for a national or regional federal party. I understand that. I personally would not want to see the country governed by Stephan Dion and the Liberals.

Yet no matter how strong the support for Conservatism is in this community - isnt it a bit of a stretch to expect us to vote for whomever they appoint? That the PM or a secret group will weigh the pros and cons of various candidates, frankly from various political viewpoints - to see who will run for MP wrapped in the Conservative colours.

As voters and tax payers Medicine Hat is experiencing something a little bit short of the grass roots transparent democratic process that we deserve.