15 posts tagged “elections”
Lost in the wilderness for years, the Conservative Party of Canada's success can be largely attributed to the grass roots populist Reform movement started by Preston Manning (with a young Stephen Harper serving as the party's first formal director of policy.)
Part of this populism meant putting a lot of power into the hands of riding associations. These associations did fund raising, community activism and had virtual carte blanche to choose candidates.
Candidate races are good for attention, sometimes. They also provide an incentive for people to get involved. They also, over the years, became not much more than popularity contests: basically the candidate with the most friends would convince them all to sign up for a modest commitment of $10 or so, and in return he'd lock up the race. Great for fund raising, but not great for true involvement.
Everyone was subjected to this, current status notwithstanding. It meant that anti-choice candidates like Russ Hiebert could launch campaigns to unseat sitting MPs. These were ugly fights, and caused fissures in the party. They gave opposition candidates great fodder for critique.
It appears that Stephen Harper has abandoned his populist beliefs, and these ugly fights are no more. From now on, sitting MPs won't have to justify their seat to the local membership.
Conservative Party's plan to acclaim incumbent MPs draws criticism
Last Updated: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 | 4:15 PM ET, CBC NewsThe federal Conservative Party is moving ahead with reforms to its process of nominating candidates for elections that will mean incumbent MPs won't have to fight for nominations in their ridings.
The proposal would declare incumbent MPs acclaimed as candidates in the next election unless two-thirds of members in their ridings ask for an open nomination contest.
Ok, sorry. That's about the most obvious and worst pun of a headline ever. I can't come up with much else though.
Election results give Gregor Robertson the Mayor's job in Vancouver, and every single one of his candidates was elected.
That's the good news. Andrea Reimer made council, and it's my sincere hope that she becomes mayor one of these days. Since living in Vancouver, there are few other people I've met who I've felt would be more capable of doing the job.
But what about our new Mayor, and the now unelected Peter Ladner?
It's contest to see who can be the most like the other. These two are spending some much time fighting over the middle of the road, everyone else is going to look like they're driving on the shoulder.
Vancouver mayoral candidates return Millennium's donations
Council's $100-million loan to developer sparks controversies
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 | 10:48 PM ET
CBC NewsBoth Vancouver mayoral candidates have rejected campaign contributions from Millennium Development Corp., the builder of the controversial Olympic Athletes Village for the 2010 Games.
Non-Partisan Association's Peter Ladner: said Millennium delivered a $2,000 cheque to him last week.
"Somebody at city hall notified me that there was a cheque there for me from Millennium and I said send it back," Ladner, who is currently a councillor, said Wednesday. "This is too sensitive right now for us to be accepting cheques from Millennium."
Vision Vancouver's Gregor Robertson said he received Millennium's $1,000 donation cheque Wednesday.
"The timing of it is troubling given that decisions have been made and driven in secret by the NPA and campaign donations are arriving after the fact," Robertson said. "I think we need to ask hard questions about where the dollars come from and why?"
A lot is going to be written about this day, for many years to come. Barak Obama has, of course, proven that he is more than capable of speaking for himself.
"I stand here today, grateful for the diversity of my heritage, aware that my parents' dreams live on in my two precious daughters. I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible."
- Barak Obama, July 27, 2004, Democratic National Convention
Tina Fey truly does have that little Sarah Palin wink nailed. I'm gonna miss that after Tuesday (at least until 2012.)
It's also nice to see John McCain displaying a seemingly good sense of humour about his current status:
It's a trueism of campaigning, that a high turnout at advance polls is a sign of impending change. Vancouver's early voting set a record when voters roundly turfed Philip Owen from office in favour of that political maverick now known as Senator Larry Campbell.
The logic is simple: if people are happy with the status quo, they are complacent about voting and don't rush out to do it before they are reminded by every media outlet they can find.
It makes me happy, therefore, to read this article in the New York Times:
The Decided Go in Droves to Vote Early
...
Among some of the 32 states that allow their residents to vote early without an excuse, either by mail or in person, the verdict is already in from a full quarter of registered voters -- well into the millions. In some counties across the nation, the percentages are far higher. The early voting will continue for several days in most of the states, but in Louisiana it is already closed, and it will end on Friday or Saturday elsewhere to give time to update the books to prevent people from voting twice.
...
Change, in this case, would indicate electoral success for Barak Obama and that seems to be a good thing.
I never cease to be amazed at how easy it is to find a commentator ignorant enough to say something stupid like this:
Mr. Schuetz said he voted for Mr. McCain, a Republican, with enthusiasm. His wife, Linda, called the choice the "lesser of two evils."
The article, of course, doesn't go on to outline the ways in which an Obama administration could be evil. You can use your own imagination.
One loss followed by two Minority parliaments doesn't seem promising for Stephen Harper, but he's got the central machine wound so tight that I doubt anyone will seriously stage an uprising. I'm willing to be that only a loss to the Liberals will prompt a new Conservative leader. Only that drunken Scotsman Doug Finlay knows.
The thing is, especially when you consider that Harper called this election in defiance of his own law mandating a four year term it doesn't look good. Presumably, they called this thing because their polling said they'd win, and win a majority.
That being the case, I can't imagine whey they'd hang onto this guy.
I, for one, am hoping for either Michael Ignatieff as a Prime Ministerial candidate next time, or a resurgence of Gerard Kennedy who has won his riding. Those are two men I could support. I suspect I'm not going to have to wait four years to find out.
A good reminder in the Vancouver Sun of the significance of voting.
"Canadian, and ready to vote": http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=a4337f9c-1d62-4006-9031-51a034b13d05&k=97491
Darah Hansen and Doug Ward, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, October 14, 2008Burnaby resident Madan Lal Bassi has accomplished many things in his 63 years of life.
He is a husband and father, a veteran of the Indian Air Force, a speaker of at least four languages, a globetrotter, and proud new Canadian citizen.
Today, he will add "voter" to that list as he casts a ballot in the federal election for the very first time.
