Kellie Leitch Among The Haters

Forget the alleged nazi-era gun.  Her meeting with Ron Banerjee's Rise Canada and other assorted nutjobs is probably the more important story.  My readers will know Ron; he is let us say special. His greatest hits can be found through this link.

A Question For All CPC Candidates: Where Are They With Respect To Russky Interference?

It's a question  I've asked Nick Kouvalis, Svengali for  Kellie Leitch:

@Bigcitylib2 Kellie has been clear. Putin is not to be trusted. He is the enemy.

— Nick Kouvalis (@NickKouvalis) January 21, 2017

Again, all CPC candidates should have to answer this question.  After its success in the recent U.S. election, Putin's troll army has turned its attention elsewhere.  They're going after Merkel now, for example.  It is way within the realm of possibility that they should be looking to find a fellow traveler from within CPC ranks to up-end Canuck politics.  Every CPC candidate should  publicly renounce such efforts in advance.

Kellie Leitch Fundraises Off Me

This appeared on CPC leadership candidate Kellie Leitch's Facebook page today.

She's got the twitter address wrong, but yeah she's talking about me, as Nick Kouvalis helpfully clarified:

@FraserFraserdw they all know it's @Bigcitylib2 that we're talking about. They don't like us. @EvanLSolomon

— Nick Kouvalis (@NickKouvalis) November 30, 2016

Firstly, I'd like to thank Ms. Leitch and Mr. Kouvalis.  I don't think anyone's ever called me "elite" before, not even my mom, or my wife, though I may ask her to start.  As for being a "prominent" Liberal, I'll include that in my Senate application form.  Speaking of which, where on the Senate website is there a floor-plan, so you can choose your seat?  Or do they leave that for a later date?

Mike Duffy Adds To The Tory Turmoil In Simcoe-Grey

I missed this when it came out 10 days ago, but the good Senator takes a couple of hearty whacks at "parachute candidate" Kellie Leitch:

When the matter of how hotly contested this race is, between Sick Kids surgeon Kellie Leitch, and former Collingwood mayor Chris Carrier, Duffy dances around the subject for a bit.

However, he acknowledges, the issue of local politicians -- and letters of endorsement -- are not playing well. "People are quite appalled because the area is getting a bad rap," he said.

The line-up of current municipal politicians who have publicly backed other candidates -- mostly Leitch -- is "shortsighted.

"In politics, there is a hierarchical arrangement of municipal, provincial and federal government... and it would not be a wise person who takes sides in this thing."

Duffy notes the reason the campaign has reached the fervour it has is the "Toronto approach.

"You've got the people who got the money and think they've got the expertise... and my fear is the people will not be well-served.

"This (being a public servant) is a tough job, and if you're not in it for the right reasons, then you could end up in a situation where other things take importance," he said. "You have to respect the sensibilities and sensitivities of this region."

So there you have it. Kellie Leitch: too Torontonian for Simcoe-Grey

Tory Turmoil In Simcoe Grey: Retraction Demand Is Itself Retracted

The story to date.

Kellie Leitch, front-running candidate for the CPoC nomination in Simcoe Grey, asks ex-Wasaga Beach mayor Cal Patterson for his endorsement. He gives it verbally, as a private citizen. She composes a letter in his name and with his political titles on it, and fires it off without clearing the final product with Patterson. He goes ape-shit, demanding the letter be retracted, even though it turns out that he had provided the Leitch campaign with an electronic version of his signature and, really, the only thing Leitch did wrong is to not show the final draft to Patterson and, perhaps, use some of his official titles when he was really endorsing her as an individual.

Turmoil ensues. Accusations fly. And then, this morning:

WASAGA BEACH – Simcoe County Warden and Wasaga Beach Mayor Cal Patterson said today he is dropping his demand for a retraction from Simcoe-Grey Conservative candidate Kellie Leitch.

In a similar cock-up on Leitch's part, it appears that many of the endorsements on home-page share very similar, in fact in some cases identical, wording. Here's the best explanation for that that I've heard:

Anyway, the minions who run Leitch’s website had clearly become accustomed to cutting and pasting endorsements from a pool of pre-prepared texts. Unfortunately they only had nine statements of endorsement for every ten endorsers…and therefore had to re-use some material. But they didn’t count on the man who has often been referred to as Collingwood’s greatest living newspaper editor [I definitely wont get blocked now]. He caught them out and making them look like buffoons!

My guess is that by the time Patterson came along, the Leitch team had got so used to splicing endorsement statements onto names that they didn’t give proper protocol a second thought.

Meanwhile another CPoC hopeful, former mayor of Collingwood Chris Carrier, has also been up to some on-line shenanigans, and has been doing some redacting and retracting of his own. His original foul:

She's also not the only candidate in this campaign with over-active letter writers; Carrier's website contains a letter to 'open-minded Conservatives' in the riding, written by John Hanlon, that trumpets a "local media" had touted the former mayor as "Simcoe-Grey's favourite son." However, as it turned out, the only reference to Carrier being Simcoe-Grey's "favourite son" is an article on a local lifestyle website — and [also] written by Hanlon.

You know the Tories think the seat if pretty safe seat if they are willing to engage in this level of silliness.

Tory Turmoil Reaches Boil In Simcoe Grey!!!

COLLINGWOOD — A candidate for the Conservative nomination in Simcoe-Grey says she had the OK — with a signature in hand — from Simcoe County's warden to prepare an endorsement letter with his autograph.

Actually, this sounds less a case of forged signatures and more a case of local Tory players gratuitously taking umbrage at one another. Personally, I never take umbrage...unless its just lying around and no one else is using it. Bah Hah!

Or, if you want to understand the situation here on a slightly deeper level, you might want to google "Kellie Leitch" "parachute candidate".

H/t to this guy who seems about 12/24 hours ahead of the local paper.

Kellie Leitch: The Endorsement Affair

More Tory Turmoil, it seems, as the "Kellie Leitch and her bogus endorsement" story--in which Wasaga Beach mayor Cal Patterson insisted that CPoC star nominee for Simcoe-Grey Kellie Leitch withdraw an endorsement that somehow wound-up with his name on it--has been updated and extended upon:

This isn't the first endorsement faux pas for Leitch in this campaign; last week it was noted several of the endorsements on her website from MPs and senators were duplicated — word for word.

The story notes "several" endorsements, but in the google cache of "What People Are Saying" on her website I note one duplication:

There are, though, a number of other endorsements where it looks like somebody hacked together the same half-dozen sentences in slightly different order so as to make things not look too obvious.

More here.

Tory Turmoil In Simcoe Gray?

COLLINGWOOD — A candidate for the Simcoe-Grey Conservative nomination says an endorsement letter that went out 'penned' by Simcoe County's warden was a result of a "big miscommunication."

Cal Patterson, who is also mayor of Wasaga Beach, said he was "furious" when a letter enthusiastically endorsing Dr. Kellie Leitch showed up at his door late last week — signed by him.

A miscommunication? Isn't forging a signature illegal?

Helena shall romp.

H/t