London, ON By-election -- Drop-in Republican/Conservative?
 

Normally Canadian elections are pretty tame by American standards, in the interal politics of the poltical parties even more so...

Except in the case of the by-election for London, Ontario.... see the federal party dropped in a hand-picked candidate despite the protests of the local party members; and what a candidate! Lets see what Haskett has got going for her shall we?

a) A staunch Conservative who, instead of running in the last couple years instead worked for the Republicans in Washington since 2000... but after Nov.7th she found she had more free time.

b) Has been fined for violating the rights and freedoms of Homosexuals while mayor of London back in the 90s.

c) Staunchly pro-Christian (please note this doesn't include Catholics... who aren't Christian according to her) and even got in trouble for anti-Islamic comments... oh and that pray-in thing where she prayed Canada would be protected from Islam (this is back in the mid-90s).

http://rickmercer.blogspot.com/

The political comedian Rick Mercer does a good send-up of the whole mess... but I should point out that while he has been accused of being too nice to the Conservatives lately, his personal bias against the anti-homosexual crowd trumps that... and he usually takes a rather creative comedic approach when expressing his 'disaproval'.

- like the time he purchased the URL rights to the name a Conservative candidate who called homosexuals "a genetic abomonation in the eyes of God"... he had the URL redirect all hits to either gay-rights site or gay-porn sites.
- and of course the counter referendum to Stockwell Day's famous attempt to change the requirements for provinicial or federal amendments (essentially he want a change that would allow modifications or amendments to pass if more than 5% of the population was in favour)... Mercer led a refurendum on CBC and online to force Stockwell to change his name to Doris (and he more than got the numbers under Stockwell's proposition, something like 23% of the Canadian population).

Rob, you seem to have issues with people with right-of-centre beliefs. This, Rob, will include many newcomers.

Sorry - to be precise I have issues with a certain set of right-of-centre beliefs.

Case in point I don't agree with Harper's little "Quebec as a nation within Quebec" stunt he's pulling - I don't want to see federalism redifined... because that's what this can easily lead to if the Bloc or others push for it to be a constitutional change. What was wrong with the distinct society provisions? All Harper has done is play into the hands of the seperatists (those in Quebec, and the growing group in Alberta).

As for Haskett, I really don't like Hatchet Haskett for a number of reasons: she ant-gay, anti-non evangelical christian, anti-monarchist, a bigot, and on a personal level a arrogant bitch who believes shes always right... I met her at Conservative party functions before 2000, and from what I hear she has only gotten worse.

I'm sure you'll have issues with me (especially me when I was 16....)

Of if you are/were anti-gay, anti-non evangelical christian, anti-monarchist, a bigot, ignorant or close minded.

I'm just disgusted that my old party would let this "woman" run, much less have a say in the internal party workings of a riding she was pretty much run out of by the local Conservatives...

Oh and don't get me started on her anti-student and heavily anti-GLO bylaws and crap she enacted when she was mayor - London had the dubious distinction for a time of being the only place in Ontario with neighbourhood living/renting restrictions for students.

Well, I'm not that....though I did go through a whole "we have no family values" phase in high school.....I refused to listen to hip hop because it was unlady like (still do.....even begged my parents to send me away to a Swiss finishing school)

Well, it's a free country...

Face it, students are loud....most *DO* need some good finishing skills.

I hated living in London - it sucks. :p

Glad I only had to be there 2 years.


It's one thing to have extreme beliefs on either side of the spectrum, it's a totally different ballgame when someone violates human rights and freedoms of individuals (which obviously that woman did)

But could you be seriously surprised that Canadian conservatives are following the same trend as the US and the UK conservatives?

As SOME conservatives in the US. I wouldn't say that most conservatives here are anti-homosexuality, although the loudest conservatives (Ann Coulter, etc.) may be that way. It seems like you're painting all conservatives with a broad brush.

Not all of us are gay-bashers, and to paint all of us that way is a bit unfair.

Exactly... there has been a new breed of Conservatives up here, much like the neo-con or social conservative movement in the US. Some of 'old Tories' are pretty disgusted at this newer ideology, and worried about the general damage they can inflict.

I wouldn't lump the neo-cons with the social conservatives; I'd say they are two seperate movements.

I was talking about neo-conservatives..sorry.

No problem - I'd still say, though, that it's not the neo-cons who feel that way, it's the social conservatives. But hey, everyone is entitled to their own interpretation.

Even in BLUE Michigan, land of the liberals, they voted to ban gay marriage, by a huge margin. I think most of society in general is anti-homosexual. I know more states had this on the ballet in '06 but I didn't end up seeing what those results were in those states.

I think referendums such as gay marriage and banning affirmative action are fascinating studies in human behavior. In the exit polls regarding our ban on affirmative action, the results were FAR different than the actual voting results. More people voted to ban it than admitted it in exit polling. People do something different in a secret ballot than they do when they are responding to someone in person. Nobody apparently wanted to be perceived as being racist/sexist when asked in person. With regards to specific candidates, the exit polls were quite accurate.

That's a bit of a hijack, but it made me think about that phenomenon. Also, you don't have to be a public gay basher to be "anti-homosexual".

And, on that point, people forget that in Massachusetts, two of the biggest opponents to the Goodridge decision (that legalized gay marriage in the state) were Democracts. One was the Speaker of the MA House, Tom Finneran at the time the most powerful Democrat voice in state government. Also, the Attorney General at the time (Tom Reilly, a Democrat), was against the ruling.

These things don't fit so neatly along party lines as people would like for you to believe.

Well the by-election is done, and here are the somewhat interesting results:

Party / Candidate /Votes/ % Votes
Canadian Action / Will Arlow /49/ 0.1%
Independent / Robert Ede / 68/ 0.2%
Conservative / Dianne Haskett /8,434 / 24.3%
PC Party / Steve Hunter /132 / 0.4%
Green Party / Elizabeth May / 9,091 / 26.1%
Liberal / Glen Pearson /12,064 / 34.7%
N.D.P. / Megan Walker /4,939 / 14.2%
Total number of valid votes: 34,777
Polls reporting: 235/253 Voter turnout: 34,777 of 89,139 registered electors (39.0%)

I was impressed to see the Green Party perform that well... as well as being disappointed at the lower than usual voter turn out. Anyways it looks like 75% voted centre->left which I'm sure has got the Conservatives a little worried given how wrong the party predictions turned out (and of course the resignation of a Cabinet member over the Quebec as a nation passing in the House today).

Who are the Canadian Action Party?? Are they anythinbg like the Canadian National Party (I think that's what they're called)?


However, since he only got 49 votes I'm guessing their platform is none too popular.

You should have seen some of the wack jobs running for councillor in my riding (33 - Don Valley) for the municipal elections. There was this one guy, Anderson Tung, who had some serious issues with the media, and was going on and on how when he became mayor he was going to sue the CBC, the Attorney General, Julian Fantino and a whole slew of others. I think he received about 49 votes as well.

What is Quebec as a nation? will that apply to British Columbia as well?

Lady Pi Phi - the Canadian Action Party... hmmm they are a little hard to nail down, since their politics are all over the place. For the most part they are Nationalists politically and economically (ie. very protectionist); think of the Heritage twits but liberal minded.

RU OX Alum - the recognition of Quebec as a nation within a nation is a "wonderful" new idea that our PM came up with to "deal" with the seperatists in Quebec. Before Quebec was recognized as a "seperate and disticnt society", as a result of the 1995 referedum held in Quebec about seperation from Canada (very narrowly defeated). The Harper government (well okay some of the Harper government) saw this as a way of taking the wind out of the seperatists (Bloc's) sails, and to cut the Liberal's federal hold on Quebec by showing that the Conservatives recognize Quebec more... the only problem though is that the seperatists are now proclaiming this the first step in the seperation process.

is there a Federalist Party in Canada?

Heh... well historically that would have been the Tories or the old Progressive Conservative party... but they merged with the Alliance/Reform party who were strong adovactes of less federal power, basically giving provinces more power. So the Liberals who used to be challenged on the fact that they gave too much power to the provinces are now seen as the 'federalists' of the political spectrum.... other weirdness also exists, like the fact that the Tories used to be the most staunch of Monarchists; but since the Alliance/Reform merger that mantle seems to fall to the NDP at the opposite end of the political spectrum.

Federalism in the U.S. is currently focused on moving towards more states rights as well.

I find it iternesting that the NDP is monarchist. Aren't they pushing towards provencial power as well due to the cannabis laws?

Being a Monarchist and being in favour of more provincial power have nothing to do with one another ;)

Anyways if the NDP was all about changes to laws regarding possession or usage of cannabis they'd be aiming at federal power - since laws in Canada are federally based, with the 'tweaking' of terms done on a provincial basis (ie. Sunday shopping, drinking age). The Liberals modified the drug laws a bit concerning cannabis, and if the NDP or the Conservatives wanted to change them one way or the other it'd have to happen again at a federal level.

It is just criminal law that is federally based. All other laws are determined by the provinces.