Lisa Raitt Debacle: A Product Of CPoC's Nomination Process?

Given Ms. Raitt's current predicament, it is perhaps a good time to note just how much controversy her appointment as Tory candidate for Halton originally generated. Members of the Halton Conservative riding association complained vociferously about this "star candidate" being parachuted in when at least three other association members had announced their intention to run. In fact, during the election itself a website sprang up urging disgruntled Torys to cast their vote for someone other than Ms. Raitt. At the time this might have sounded like sour grapes, but given recent developments, the words of Charles Conn, Reform Party candidate for the riding of Mississauga West back in 1993, now seem prescient:

...[i]nvestigators might possibly find it useful to also probe Toronto city councillors and mayor Miller about Ms. Raitt's tenure at THC.

(Note: THC=Toronto Harbour Commission, precurser to the TPA=Toronto Port Authority)

And, just this morning, former MP Joe Hueglin weighed in, blaming the current debacle on the CPoC's penchant for "top down governance":

Though there were several candidates who had been cleared to stand for nomination, though there were requests the Nomination Meeting be held from the EDA it was not.

Rather than this Lisa Riatt was named as candidate through application of the Conservative Party of Canada Candidate Nomination Rules and Procedures Section 8 b., APPENDIX B...

[...]

Some would consider the decision made by the hierarchs as an error based not only on current misadventures but on questions as to whether she would have passed the test to be able to stand for nomination due to questions raised concerning her conduct in the position from which she has taken a leave of absence.

I notice that the TPA scandal continues to percolate, and threatens to draw in Transport Minister John Baird. Looks like some of these Tory rebs from days gone by might have had a point about ignoring the wisdom of the CPoC grass-roots.

Cue The Peasants With Pitchforks!

Catholic Insight's Alphonse de Valk:

It is highly undesirable that Stephen Harper continue to hold the Prime Ministership for very much longer for a number of reasons.

— First, he has made the mistake of coming to believe that his persona is the personification of Conservatism. Thus he tolerates no views other than his own, is suspicious of others in the party, bullies his MPs, and cannot delegate tasks without giving up personal control.

— Under his regime the PM’s Office (PMO) with over 100 people has consolidated the vices introduced under previous prime ministers. For example, during preparations for elections, candidates are parachuted in, ignoring the wishes of riding associations which increasingly tend to be bypassed anyway.

— The democratic character of the party organization is set aside whenever it is deemed desirable. Even the local handling of candidates is taken away, as was the case with Diane Haskett, a former mayor of London, whose efforts were thwarted by direct interference from Ottawa (which did not like her Christian convictions).

— Also, Harper seems to have turned his back on what he himself understood in earlier days to be threats to the nation, such as the electoral gag laws silencing third parties, as well as the ever more unsavoury actions of Human Rights Commissions which, instead of bringing equality to Canadians, are pitting groups against one another while extinguishing freedom of speech.

It is almost impossible to understate the influence of Mr. de Valk and his magazine, and you can make a good argument that Harper won the '08 election without the SoCon gang on-side and can therefore ignore them going forward. That is, Harper won by ignoring his base, not embracing it. But it is interesting that Mr. de Valk's commentary echoes, in some of its complaints re the anti-democratic process involved in choosing candidates, allegations made by disgruntled non-SoCons within the party. For example, Charles Conn (Mississauga Reform Party candidate in 1993) represents the small government/socially moderate wing of the CPoC. During this election campaign, Mr. Conn wrote:

The history books are full of 'strong leaders' whose dictatorial, my-way-or-the-highway rigidity led to disastrous consequences for their people.
[...]
...lwhatever you do, whichever party is involved, shun like the plague every appointed parachute candidate who was shoved down the throats of members in so many constituencies. Just last fall, an impressive majority of Ontarians rejected MMP. Don't let the backroom party big shots in Ottawa sneak it in by stealth.

So what's the possible upshot of this simmering discontent?

MPs should revolt over this “trained-seal” scenario by quietly but aggressively organizing a bloc of members who will, if necessary, break away to form a new Reform party and do what our Prime Minister will not do but what must be done to save Canada.

...a scenario which is probably not likely at the moment. But who knows? Given the economic hardship ahead of the country, and the persistence of Quebecers demanding money from the Conservative government while not offering it much in the way of electoral return, such cracks in the fragile alliance that is the CPoC could be exacerbated.

Update: What I said.

Tory Reb Strikes Back...Again!

Charles Conn ran for the Reform Party in the riding of Mississauga West back in 1993, losing to Carolyn Parrish. More recently, he has been a persistent critic of the CPoC's lack of commitment to its party grass roots when it comes to the matter of nominating candidates. I have chronicled his complaints against the process that produced Melissa Bhaghat here, and produced Lisa Raitt, here.

Now Charles has a message for the Canadian people!

The history books are full of 'strong leaders' whose dictatorial, my-way-or-the-highway rigidity led to disastrous consequences for their people.

Perhaps it would be better for Canadians to keep the Harper-controlled Tories in check for a while longer by only electing enough of them to form another minority government.

Let's see if they can start to lead by the democratic policies the country so desperately needs instead of copying Liberal pandering.

Suggestion: unless your current MP has been an absolute trainwreck, re-elect him or her.

And whatever you do, whichever party is involved, shun like the plague every appointed parachute candidate who was shoved down the throats of members in so many constituencies. Just last fall, an impressive majority of Ontarians rejected MMP. Don't let the backroom party big shots in Ottawa sneak it in by stealth.

Charles W. Conn, Mississauga.
cwc@ceconn.com
http://www.ceconn.com

Take THAT, Ray Heard!!

Lisa Raitt To Be Unveiled!!

Sometimes, the paranoid stories turn out to be true. For example, it looks like one-time Reform Party candidate Charles Conn got it right when he claimed that Harper Central Command was getting set to appoint Toronto Harbour Commission CEO Lisa Raitt as the Tory candidate in Halton. John Ivison writes

...the Conservatives have high hopes for Lisa Raitt, president and CEO of the Toronto Port Authority, who they will unveil this week as the candidate to take on the floor-crosser, Garth Turner, in Halton.

Lisa Raitt will be "unveiled", and Halton's Conservative riding association will be barred from choosing their own representative. Furthermore, similar betrayals of the party grass-roots, according to Conn, are playing out in at least a dozen riding associations across the country.


Big deal, you might say, the Libs do it all the time. Well, yes, but nobody ever accused the Libs of being a grass-roots party. Do the Stephen Harper Tories intend to forfeit that title?

Tory Reb Speaks, Claims Over A Dozen Tory Riding Associations Being Suppressed By CPoC HQ!

Charles Conn ran for the Reform Party in the riding of Mississauga West back in 1993, losing to Carolyn Parrish. More recently, he has been a persistent critic of the CPoC's commitment to its party grass roots when it comes to the matter of nominating candidates. I have chronicled his complaints against the process which produced Melissa Bhaghat here, and is in the process of anointing Lisa Raitt, here.

Mr. Conn's recent letter to FreeDominon on the Raitt situation raised a number of issues for me. For example, one FreeD denizen responded to Mr. Conn as follows:

The National Councillors of the CPC are simply acting on the authority given to them in the
"new" party's constitution.

5.3 Electoral district associations shall comply with such requirements as to their governance, financial management and reporting, as may be implemented by National Council by by-law or otherwise.

The term "or otherwise," pretty much covers anything Don Plett or Doug Finley and company might want to do. If conservative members don't like their constitution they should either work to change it or rip up their membership and quit supporting the party.

(Note: CPoC Constitution and other backing documents can be found here)

I wanted some response from Mr. Conn to this comment.

Secondly, Mr. Conn had written:

National Councillors know full well what's going on....

[...]...they can read the media accounts that relate the destruction being wrought, not just in southern Ontario, but also in Quebec, the Maritimes, Manitoba, Alberta and B.C. just in the last year. And probably three time as much damage is being done in ridings lacking the juice to fight back or get media attention.

And I wondered where some of these other riding associations might be.

So I emailed Mr. Conn! The following is an annotated version of our exchange, which he has allowed me to publish here.

On the first point, and to summarize, Mr. Conn believes that, since the Rob Anders affair (wherein Mr. Anders won his riding nomination by means contrary to Conservative Party rules) , the CPoC consititution has been altered so as to kneecap decision-making on the part of local riding associations. He notes that, before changes made in July 2007, the Constitution contained the following clause:

2. e. The CNC shall: i. conduct a fair and effective recruitment, nomination and selection process etc. etc. etc.

...which post July 2007 has been changed to

2. i. The CNC shall administer a candidate nomination and selection process etc. etc. etc.

Mr. Conn writes:

This was just one of the many changes made to the Rules and Procedures following the Anders case in Calgary. They were designed by PoliOps, accepted by National Council and effectively render riding associations otiose.

Just to throw in another, particulary nasty example:

8.b. National Council may alter, abridge or suspend any of the Rules as it sees fit.

...which is also from the "Candidate Nomination Rules and Procedures", July 2007 version.

On the second point (in which ridings specifically is Tory HQ trampling over the rights of local riding associations), Mr Conn wrote to me as follows:

Vancouver Quadra (both parties), Calgary West, Wild Rose, an "Eastern Townships" riding (unnamed) in which David Marler, a Knowlton lawyer, was told he wasn't wanted as a candidate after months of informal campaigning. The party preferred Mark Quinlan, aide to Christian Paradis, secretary of state for agriculture, Casey case in Nova Scotia. A hasty search of my files couldn't locate the Manitoba case and since I'm leaving on vacation in a couple of days, would ask you to excuse that one omission.

It looks like most of the instances of "parachuting" are occurring in southern Ontario, but, my speculative bet is we're only seeing reports of about one-third.

Six cases is one third of 18. So, even assuming a little exaggeration on the part of Mr. Conn, we are talking about over a dozen ridings where CPoC HQ is stomping all over the rights of its Membership.

(Note: anyone with an idea of which Manitoba riding Mr. Conn might be talking about, please let me know).

By the way, CharlesConn is not exactly your standard issue Tory. His views on homosexual rights, for example, have been strongly influenced by his observations of gay pets and livestock.

Tory Turmoil In Halton!

With the economy teetering on the edge of recession, government finances in the red, raunchy deli meats flooding the store-shelves of the nation, and even staunch Tories criticizing Stephen Harper's apparent decision to turn his back on his own promise of fixed election dates, the last thing the CPoC needs on the brink of an (alleged) election call is dissatisfied rumblings from the grass roots.

But that appears to be what they're getting!

Charles Conn-- a one man fount of dissension and one of the guys who tried to derail the nomination of the talented and voluptuous Melissa Bhagatt--is now reporting dirty goings on in the riding of Halton! Take it away Charles!

Halton riding has a consistent and active membership of around 550 and a significant amount of money in the bank. It has always had a healthy riding association ­ active in many community events and experienced at winning elections. There have been at least three very well-qualified members who have announced their intention to seek the candidacy for the same two years. All the requirements for holding a candidate selection process have been in place. It is axiomatic that the longer a candidate has to work the riding the more likely he/she is to have a positive influence on the outcome of an election.

However, PoliOps has decided to appoint Lisa Raitt as the Tory candidate in Halton.

Lisa Raitt at least lives in the riding. She is the CEO of the Toronto Harbour Commission. Formerly, she was chief counsel for the THC and was responsible for extracting the $35M penalty from Toronto City Council for their holdup of the Island Airport. Clearly a "Star" candidate!

As an aside, Mr. Conn casts a harsh eye of Ms. Raitt's time at the harbour commision, and suggests that "[i]nvestigators might possibly find it useful to also probe Toronto city councillors and mayor Miller about Ms. Raitt's tenure at THC". (Note: a quick GoogleNews search for "Raitt" and "Toronto Harbour Comission" yields nothing even slightly scandalous. Oh well!)

However, most interesting is Mr. Conn's account of how PoliOps plans to execute its screw-over of the CPoC grassroots. Apparently, Lisa Raitt was presented to the riding BOD early this year as the de facto candidate, but because of the controversy stirred up by L'affaire Bhaghat (partly by me, I'm proud to say!), PoliOps was forced to back off for the time being. However:

The membership in Halton will not be allowed to choose their own candidate. Whenever the writ is dropped for the next federal election, the cover of the call to arms will be used to sneak in Lisa Raitt as the official Party Representative.
[...]
Talk about abusing the membership!

Personally, I find it instructive to observe Tories abusing their Members. But whatever. Conn concludes by alleging that similar take-overs are going on all across the country:

National Councillors know full well what's going on....
[...]
...they can read the media accounts that relate the destruction being wrought, not just in southern Ontario, but also in Quebec, the Maritimes, Manitoba, Alberta and B.C. just in the last year. And probably three time as much damage is being done in ridings lacking the juice to fight back or get media attention.

Has the CPoC abandoned its grass-roots in the raw pursuit of power?