Our campaign has moved into a new gear, almost overnight. Esther put out the call for volunteers to man a booth at a major fall fair this weekend, to blitz neighbourhoods in advance of the coming Town Hall meetings, and to get a newsletter out to our growing membership – and she was swamped with response.
We have printing flying around all over the place, a full slate of events lined up, people asking when they can go out door-knocking with me, newspaper ads ready to be published and, most importantly, the results of my canvassing just get better and better. As I wrote here yesterday, it is all convincing me that support for the Liberals is extremely thin; that people in Halton are truly looking for a reason to vote for a Conservative; and that our on-the-ground efforts will result in a victory.
Here on the street, block by block, event by event, person by person, politics is about establishing respect and trust. If people like you and feel they can put their confidence in you, then the odds are you have their vote. In their hearts, people understand what it is to be a small-c conservative – this is an expression of the core values of moderation, prudence, reasonableness and compassion. It is what Canadians are all about.
Political hacks, and the media that feed them and feed off them, see politics in a completely different light. They concentrate not on the voters, but on the leaders. Not on communities, but on parties. Not on values, but on policies and theories. So their views are usually myopic and destructive,
I thought of that this morning when I was sent a copy of an open letter from Carol, a Conservative organizer in Etobicoke. It is a three-page dump on Stephen Harper written by a woman who says she helped recruit Belinda Stronach to run for party leader. She wants Harper to resign. If he does not, she asks, “How does that help us convince Mr. And Mrs. Average Canadian that we hear their concerns…?â€
Maybe I’m too simple, but it seems to me that once you pick a leader, you support that leader. It also strikes me the leader is but one aspect of a political party and what we all should be doing within that party. The political process is a deeper and bigger than one man, regardless of what the media tells you. Leaders come and leaders go, while the people remain.
How do we convince Mr. And Mrs. Average Canadian? You talk to them, Carol.
14 comments ↓
The only way to achieve the recovery & survival of the Conservative Party of Canada is to elect credible candidates with integrity, intelligence and respect for the democratic process. Candidates like Garth Turner who are out there in the trenches day in and day out, meeting fact to face with Mr & mrs Average Canadian; listening to their concerns and showing them the Conservative Party is the right choice for all Canadians. For all of us who are tired of this Liberal Government by Defealt, for all of us who truly believe in the ideals, principles and policy of the Conservative Party, for all of us who are also out there in the trenches day after day supporting our candidates across the country ….. thanks alot Carol! I’m sure it’s purely coincidence that you released your letter on the same day as the the CTV leadership poll.
Belinda is gone, and she is not coming back. Does this Carol person not know that Stronach has defected to the Liberals?
She didn’t defect, she’s on maternity leave to raise her love-child called greed, sired by liberal deceit.
I think Garth really hit the nail on the head in the entry. It’s not about the leaders, it’s about so much more.
For me it’s about way of life.
I may not agree with every detail of the Conservative agenda, but overall, my beliefs agree much more closely with those supported by memebrs of the Conservative party than with those supported by members of the Liberal party.
To me, the leader is irrelevant. Well, not completely irrelevant, I’d rather not have leader that showcases his golfball collection during a judicial inquiry. Luckily, I don’t think it gets cold enough around here to ever have to worry about that.
Parties may be the fodder of hacks Garth, but only parties can form governments. Only parties can defeat governments. If Carol Jamieson or anyone else honestly believes that your party will never form a government — never defeat this Liberal government — with your current leader, shouldn’t she be saying so?
Leaders do come and leaders do go, so what’s wrong with asking for one to go?
Like everyone else in your party — like everyone outside of your party — Carol Jamieson should be speaking honestly about how best to defeat this government if that is what they truly believe is best for this country.
Like I do.
Like you do.
I was going to add my two cents about what I thought of Carol’s destructive self-serving efforts, but then I decided not to.
My tongue bleeds.
Carol Jamieson aka Margaret Jamieson aka M Carol Jamieson aka Trojan Tory
Carol Jamieson submitted what one might call a press release to what one might call a news blog in memo format which was addressed to Conservative party members.
No surprise, this “conservative” wants Stephen Harper to resign and must want the Tor…
Since you haven’t provided the text of her letter and since you’ve taken the one quote you did give us out of context, here’s what she said:
“However, the Canadian electorate is finished with him. They have made up their minds and have spoken in poll after poll. For him to stay now merely adds insult to the injuries and further damages the conservative franchise in this country.
“If Harper does not recognize this and move on, the electorate will be finished with us too and the CPC will not survive. Think about this. Many of you are sitting in the weeds whispering, “Oh well, he’ll be gone after he loses the next election anyway, so let’s not bother ourselves and just wait him out.” What does that do for this struggling young party? How does that help us convince Mr. And Mrs. Average Canadian that we hear their concerns and know we have the wrong message and the wrong Leader? How can we swing the “natural conservatives” (to the extent they still exist) back to trusting us? Regaining TRUST is the hardest thing in politics.”
She is talking to us Garth.
If you refer to the blog of Stephen Taylor or Small Dead Animals, you’ll find that this Carol person’s credibility and sincerity should be questioned. The Leader of the Party won democratically. An estranged concept in Canada. The Leader of the Opposition in Canada is held to much higher account by media and the public than is the Prime Minister. It is an important time for all MP’s and candidates to strongly support Mr. Harper. He’s earned the respect of the Party. He’s earned the Leadership honestly. It only harms the Conservative Party to question the Leadership.
She’s a cranky old woman who didn’t get her way with Belinda. She’s the one who helped recruit Belinda… what a disaster that was! Do we REALLY want her advice on picking another leader?
Here’s to another decade of Liberal rule. By then the opposition will have merged several times and then be known as the Green Democratic Reformed Conservative Alliance Bloc. Cheers!
“If you refer to the blog of Stephen Taylor or Small Dead Animals, you’ll find that this Carol person’s credibility and sincerity should be questioned.”
Of course, you’ll also find that the credibility of both Stephen Taylor’s blog and Small Dead Animals should be questioned. Credibility goes both ways Ann.
To keep things in perspective, Stephen Harper is only one of the elected CPC MPs who also happens to be the leader of the party at present. Any leader of any organization deserves some amount of respect.
The important point to remember is that it is not the leader who represents the constituents of a particular riding, it is the candidate elected in the riding itself. The more high quality candidates that are elected under the CPC banner, the higher the quality of the party as a whole. The point that Ms Jamieson seems to be trying to make is that the leader & the leader alone is what makes up a party – I personally feel that is rather short sighted and minimizes the rest of the people that belong to the CPC.
Within the Halton riding, Garth Turner is showing that he not only says that he wants the priviledge of representing the people of Halton, he is also backing that up with plenty of hard work, dialogue and dedication. From what I have seen and heard, that alone is reason enough to elect him to represent me in Ottawa. What has the Liberal incumbent done for the riding during his elected term? Not much that I’ve seen other than mail out proforma letters at the taxpayers expense!
I’ll take hard work and determination any day over a Parliament Hill “couch potatoe”.
Keep it up Garth….the folks in Halton are paying attention!
Maybe I’m too simple, but it seems to me that once you pick a leader, you support that leader.
And it’s this kind of thinking that continues to sink your party. Do you really think that Canada is made up of 40% Liberals and 15% NDPers? The Tories hard slam to the right after the Reform infection has damaged the Tories badly. I think that Paul Martin could walk out in the House wearing nothing but leather chaps, eat the head off a bunny, throw the carcass into the speaker’s lap and yell “Bring out the baby!” and most Canadians would go “Well, still better than Harper and his mob.â€
And why is Carol’s letter causing such a feces fracas? Because she’s right, she’s seeing and telling the truth, dump Harpo and his crew and you’ll get back the conservatives who are holding their nose and voting Liberal. Otherwise Martin will continue to cruise along and that’s no good for anyone.
I think that what Carol really means when she says ““How does that help us convince Mr. and Mrs. Average Canadian that we hear their concerns…?†is ““How does that help us convince Mr. And Mrs. average Ontarian that we hear their concerns…?â€
I do not see any evidence that Stephen Harper has any problem communicating with the “average Canadians” west of Kenora. When Canadians east of Winnipeg are finally ready to refuse to accept Liberal corruption, arrogance, cronyism, elitism, and all manner of mismanagment, we will need to recognise that the outlook for the “average Canadian” differs considerably from region to region, province to province, and rural to urban.
The lesson of the formation of the Reform and BQ is that the old status quo of a political message that resonates with Ontario voters and an urban majority does not neccessarily represent the views of a great many Canadians.
The challenge will be to help Canadians support policies and programs that respect the constitution and the notion that individual rights and freedoms should not be trampled by collective rights and entitlements. Now is not the time to be holding a leadership debate. I do not see a leader on the horizon of any of the parties that is better equipped than Stephen Harper to deliver the changes that will allow CAnada to stay together as a country.