Category: La Belle Province

Whew. Okay… here we go… one election down, one to go. Is it just me, or is anyone else around here starting to get a slight case of politico burnout? Between the mayoral race, having all of our wards redrawn, and now the federal race in London North Centre beginning in ernest, I’m starting to feel like I’ve been fed meatloaf too many days in a row (anybody else remember that one)?

Anywho, moving right along here. Now that all the hot air from the municipals has died down (for a few years, at least), I can get back to the business of shooting my mouth off about the race to replace the much unlamented Joe Bananas. Hopefully, we’ll be able to hear a thing or two from former mayor Dianne Haskett as well, now that the local vote is in the rearview mirror.

For those of you not already aware, Haskett has been quiet as a church mouse so far in the campaign, eschewing the media in favour of good, old-fashioned one on one contact with voters to get her message out. Whether this is good strategy or not remains to be seen. Then again, her uncampaign in the summer of ’97 paid off pretty well, didn’t it? Locals will remember that as the time when Dianne, in protest against being fined $5000 by the OHRC for exercising her right to freedom of religion, voluntarily withdrew from her duties as mayor for three weeks (without pay) and didn’t campaign at all in the last three weeks of the election. She then whomped her closest competitor, Grant Hopcroft, at the polls by a 2 to 1 margin.

While Grit candidate Glen Pearson has been busily bleating that Dianne’s been muzzled by the Machiavellian PMO, Haskett has promised that we’ll be hearing more from her now that the municipal millstone is out of the picture.

Haskett said late last week she has been relatively quiet so as not to interfere with the municipal election. She said that should soon change. [Freeps]

We’ll just have to sait and see. And now… the links:

The Freeps
Byelection Notebook
CAMPAIGN NOTEBOOK: Former president sidetracks May
Pearson to PM: unleash Haskett

Canada.com
Liberal byelection candidate has sport with silent Conservative opponent

Globe & Mail
Liberal by-election candidate ridicules silent opponent
Opponent says PM is muzzling by-election candidate

Movin’ right along. As some of you have already noticed, independent London North Centre candidate Rob Ede has taken me up on my offer from yesterday and put up his first post earlier today.

While the media seems to have been rather on the quiet side on the subject of the byelections lately, the blogosphere seems to have woken up and taken notice. Seems there was something going on south of the border someplace that had them distracted for a while there… 😆 Anyways, here’s what there is for today:

The Freeps
Campaign Notebook

CanadianChristianity.com
Christian women contest election in Ontario

Hobbs Is Right
Help Elect a Tory in London North Centre!

StephenTaylor.ca
Blogging Tories can fundraise for Dianne Haskett

Okay, so I missed a day there. I don’t think it was such a big deal, though; there really wasn’t much that happened in Byelectionland yesterday. Today, however, looks to be a little bit more interesting.

Yup, the much-anticipated mud has begun to fly in London North Centre with the Greenies bleating that Haskett (who seems to be the candidate to beat, judging from the seemingly disproportionate amount of fire she’s drawing) is a stereotypical Christian nutjob and the Tory camp firing back not at the Boogers (who they, apparently, don’t think would be worth the ammunition), but instead at the Librano$ and the NDP for their habit of being crybaby, criminal-coddling creampuffs. The Dippers, in turn, lobbed a clanger on the rug by saying that the Tories are anti-military. HUH!?!?? 😯 Well, I was sort of griping about things being boring, wasn’t I? Silly me. 🙄

Then, bright and early this morning, I get a comment on my last Byelection Buzz post from none other than independent candidate Robert Ede:

1. Comment by Robert Ede November 9, 2006 @ 7:28 am |Edit ThisWhat’s your email, I’ll put you on my mailing list

Well, I’ll be danged. Hey, Bob (can I call ya Bob?), let me start off first by saying thanks for stopping by. Always glad to have candidates taking in interest in what the rest of us have on our melons, but what do you need my email for? Have something you want to say, do you? Something you’d like to get out to the masses, like maybe your positions on the issues?

Well, Bob, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do: I’ll see your mailing list and raise you a contributorship. That’s right: I’ll set you up with a user account and you can log in here and put up your views and opinions on the issues that concern us in your own words, entirely unedited by me.

Yes, I’m a card-carrying Tory and no, I can’t imagine what you might possibly say to get me to vote otherwise but I’ll still listen to you, and so will my readers. Being a bit of an old-fashioned type, I have this bothersome belief in that whole democracy thing and that means doing what I can to make sure that the people who do the voting get to hear from all sides before they make up their minds, even the sides that I’m not voting for.

So, whaddaya say there, Bob? Think of it as a chance to get your message out. After all, nobody ever got elected to anything by preaching to the converted. Just send your response to admin@rightcrazy.com and I’ll set you up, licketysplit. Hope to hear from you soon.

Cheers 😀

The Freeps
Party staff assisting with byelection
Byelection mud slinging begins

Dang, but it’s getting crowded in here. For those of you that haven’t been paying much attention lately, we now have seven (count ’em: SEVEN) candidates running for one li’l ol’ seat on the hill for London North Centre. And none of ’em lived here before the byelection was called. 🙄

Just for a quick recap, they are: Dianne Haskett (Tories), Elizabeth May (Greens), Glen Pearson (Librano$), Megan Walker (Dippers), Steve Hunter (PCP), Robert Ede (himself) and Will Arlow (CAP) makes seven.

And here I was complaining that things were all dull around here. Guess I should be more careful what I wish for.

Meanwhile, over in la Belle Province, Ray Gravel is starting to find himself in hot water with the diocese over his not just running for the Blocheads, but for saying that he had the okay from the Vatican to do it. Am I the only one not surprised by this? I don’t think so. The Catholic Church expects its priests to stay the hell out of secular politics whenever possible, except on matters of direct concern to the Faith (SSM and abortion being two of the more noteworthy of those exceptions). Look for more doo to hit the rotating blades over this one.

The Freeps
And then there were … count ’em … seven

Canada.com
Priest didn’t get permission of Vatican to run for Bloc Quebecois: bishop

Ottawa Citizen
Vatican won’t OK priest’s bid to run for the Bloc

CTV
Priest not cleared yet to run for Bloc: bishop

CWN
the oldest profession

All-Candidates Meeting Nov 22
I Just learned that the first all-candidates meeting in London-North-Centre is set for Nov. 22 at the Central Library in the Stevenson-Hunt room, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Be there or be square. Or both.

Another day, another link (or two). With only three weeks left to go, you’d think that things would be heating up a little bit more than they have been but things seem to have been relatively calm, at least in London North Centre. Everyone seems to be just chugging along with nary a peep. It’s enough to make you wonder when it’s gonna hit the fan (because you can’t help but think that it will, sooner or later). Well, on the other hand, the announcememt that the Canadian Action Party has decided to hop into the pool should make things a little… er… shall we say “interesting?” 🙄

The Freeps
May looks to make history

viveleCanada.ca
CAP leaps into Action for two by-elections!

Still more fiddleyfriggery from the MSM. But, hey; what else have we come to expect from them? The latest eekings and shreikings from the leftist lapdogs in the national media return, like a dog to its own vomit, to the recent Chicken Little proclaimations that the Tories are actually encouraging each other to support their candidates in the byelections. Sure this is something that all parties have done, pretty much since forever, but when has the media ever placed it in such ominous (“One of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s most senior political operatives is urging taxpayer-funded staff in the Parliament Hill offices of Conservative MPs to get involved in two federal byelection campaigns“) terms? Never, as far as I can remember. Of course they do a lame about-face (“Finley’s memo never explicitly states that Hill staff should use their parliamentary office resources or taxpayer-funded time“) just enough not to get sued, but it really doesn’t take a whole hell of a lot to guess what party membership cards these bozos have in their pockets now, does it?

Yeah, so the Tories are encouraging their staff to help out in the byelections. But then again, most of their staff are Tories, too. And before you have yourself a big, bad, Machiavellian meltdown over that, ask yourself this: how many conservatives do you think were working there when the Lieberals were running the show?

It seems that at least one old adage is holding as fast and true as ever: believe half of what you see and none of what you read. Except for here, of course. I’m a paragon of honesty, dontcha know?

Canada.com
Top Conservative urges staff in MPs’ offices to wade into byelection campaigns*

CTV
Memo urges Tory MPs’ staff to help in byelections

The Freeps
Candidates descend on mall

[* Sure, I could have listed all dozen or so of these stories that I found (from the Montreal Gazette to the Winterpeg Freeps to MacLeans), except for one thing: they were all exactly the same story, word for word. Interesting, non?]