Why do I read the news?
Fucking hell. It's just one thing after another.
The Liberal party has dumped one of its B.C. candidates following allegations he offered an NDP candidate a job to drop out of the race and support the Liberals.
In an affidavit filed with Elections Canada, Jeffrey Hansen-Carlson alleges that Abbotsford Liberal candidate David Oliver and his campaign manager guaranteed him a win in the next municipal election, and offered him a job in Ottawa – if Oliver went on to win the election on Jan. 23.
Honestly, I don't care about individual candidates who turn out to be corrupt or to do and say dumb things. In the last BC election, the NDP ran a prominent Slobodan Milosevic apologist in one riding until there was an outcry over some remarks he made. He stepped down, and it didn't much affect my vote for Carol James' party. Nor did I care much about Derek Zeisman and the smuggling charges either, so long as Harper gave him the hot potato treatment. Bad candidates will sometimes make it through the vetting process. (Granted, such scruplenous appears to be a relatively new thing for the Tories. Apparently the rules are, smuggling, no; doctoring tapes, yes. Though Grewal has thoughtfully decided not to embarrass his party by running again.)
It's this bit from the G&M report on the Oliver scandal that's resonant:
"I had two people I respected who I view as having influence in the community corner me in a private back office, completely putting me on the spot, telling me this is how Canadian politics really functions," [Hansen-Carlson] said.
Canadians aren't by-in-large conservative. They might be swayed by Martin's anti-conservative message. But not if a critical mass becomes convinced that this is, in fact, the way "Canadian politics really functions". Every day it seems, Martin has to first go on about his personal "zero tolerance" for "that sort of thing", which -- in this case at least -- ought to be a given. At this point, it's getting to be a farce. The Liberals need to do something bold to prove that isn't the way Canadian politics "really functions", that it's not the way the Liberals "really function", something more than just withdrawing their candidate and repaying their riding allowance. It doesn't matter how hard-hitting the rest of Martin's message is if this shit keeps happening. Similarly, the Tony-Valeri-house-deal stuff referred to in the Star article wouldn't be worth sniffing at normally, but at this point it's more of the drip, drip, drip. The Liberals have gotten themselves into the position where every impropriety allogation is going to stick, no matter how cosmetic it is. Somebody needs to stop this trainwreck in progress or we're all going to shit.
The Liberal party has dumped one of its B.C. candidates following allegations he offered an NDP candidate a job to drop out of the race and support the Liberals.
In an affidavit filed with Elections Canada, Jeffrey Hansen-Carlson alleges that Abbotsford Liberal candidate David Oliver and his campaign manager guaranteed him a win in the next municipal election, and offered him a job in Ottawa – if Oliver went on to win the election on Jan. 23.
Honestly, I don't care about individual candidates who turn out to be corrupt or to do and say dumb things. In the last BC election, the NDP ran a prominent Slobodan Milosevic apologist in one riding until there was an outcry over some remarks he made. He stepped down, and it didn't much affect my vote for Carol James' party. Nor did I care much about Derek Zeisman and the smuggling charges either, so long as Harper gave him the hot potato treatment. Bad candidates will sometimes make it through the vetting process. (Granted, such scruplenous appears to be a relatively new thing for the Tories. Apparently the rules are, smuggling, no; doctoring tapes, yes. Though Grewal has thoughtfully decided not to embarrass his party by running again.)
It's this bit from the G&M report on the Oliver scandal that's resonant:
"I had two people I respected who I view as having influence in the community corner me in a private back office, completely putting me on the spot, telling me this is how Canadian politics really functions," [Hansen-Carlson] said.
Canadians aren't by-in-large conservative. They might be swayed by Martin's anti-conservative message. But not if a critical mass becomes convinced that this is, in fact, the way "Canadian politics really functions". Every day it seems, Martin has to first go on about his personal "zero tolerance" for "that sort of thing", which -- in this case at least -- ought to be a given. At this point, it's getting to be a farce. The Liberals need to do something bold to prove that isn't the way Canadian politics "really functions", that it's not the way the Liberals "really function", something more than just withdrawing their candidate and repaying their riding allowance. It doesn't matter how hard-hitting the rest of Martin's message is if this shit keeps happening. Similarly, the Tony-Valeri-house-deal stuff referred to in the Star article wouldn't be worth sniffing at normally, but at this point it's more of the drip, drip, drip. The Liberals have gotten themselves into the position where every impropriety allogation is going to stick, no matter how cosmetic it is. Somebody needs to stop this trainwreck in progress or we're all going to shit.
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