Month: November 2008

Now is the time to act.

Everyone needs to let the Governor General know they oppose the Liberal/NDP coalition government.

You can write the GG by emailing her at

info@gg.ca

You should address the email with the following

Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean
Governor General of Canada
Rideau Hall
1 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A1

Reasons you can site are:

-The Liberals and NDP together have fewer seats than the Conservatives.
-Any coalition would need to be propped up by separatists
-Each and every confidence vote made under a coalition would only come with concessions to the Bloc further increasing the fiscal imbalance and angering non Quebecers.

I urge everyone to write her TODAY and ask your friends to do the same.

Flood her office.

Saturday started out with breakfast in the main ballroom. My friend running for National Council arrived at the ballroom 15 minutes early and asked if he could put some flyers out on the breakfast tables. He was told he could not. Yet when the doors opened at 8am, there were already advertisements for several of the other candidates on every table. So we split up and put 1 or 2 of his brochures out on each table as people rolled in for their repast.

After breakfast we were entertained with our financial situation by Irving and then got to watch the Maple Leaf awards get presented. Following that, 3 ridings were recognized for providing over $100,000 in financial assistance to other EDA’s. This gave me great pleasure as our Association made an effort and provided some assistance to three ridings as well. One of those was Egmont where Gale Shea won by 55 votes (which means we probably made a difference), and another was West Nova where we were glad to help throw Robert Thibeault out on his ear.

The late morning had us voting on all the constitutional changes which was televised on CPAC and is probably already out in the press should anyone want to know what changes were made.

Between 12 and 130 we were allowed to eat lunch and vote for national councillors. I arrived early and lined up to vote and the line up quickly formed and wound around and up the stairs back to the main ballroom level which had many of us thinking that some would surely not get in to vote in time or have time for lunch but the layout of the voting room was so well planned that the line outside the door was literally gone within 10 minutes. I must commend whomever planned the voting procedures because they were truly fantastic.

Lunch was lunch and it was off to the Policy Plenary session where we passed several apple pie resolutions. A few controversial ones came up, and there were a few linguistic challenges to overcome but they managed the situation very well. Having watched the NDP plenary a couple of years ago and seeing how they only got through a few motions, I was pleased to see that our party got through 30 in under 3 hours.

They then let us know who the national councillors were. The Ontario list was truly a great list. There were 9 people running and I can safely say that I was impressed with each and every one of them in some manner. The convention was then officially closed and it was off to dinner at Hy’s Steakhouse in the Richardson building where I was disappointed to see that they did not have any Fort Garry Dark!!

After dinner we made our way to the Campaign Research hospitality suite where I spoke to Richard Ciano and got to meet Nick Kouvalis. Blue Blogging Soapbox (blogger) told me Nick would be here and it was a pleasure to run into a fellow Greek conservative. At this suite I also got a chance to spend quite a bit of time to talk to Christian Conservative (blogger) and I also discovered another nice local beer called Two Rivers Lager. This was a really fresh tasting light lager that a non beer drinker would probably find quite nice.

After discovering I had lost my room key, I made my way downstairs where I got stuck in the hotel bar with my friends for a few more Fort Garry Darks. In the hotel bar, we ran into Tom Lukiwski. I congratulated him on his win and we found our seats. Gerry Ritz was nearby with a couple of friends so I went and congratulated him as well and let him know that several of our members watch him as we have a strong agricultural part of our riding and I let him know that I thought Mike Duffy was a bit over the edge with remarks in an interview with Mr. Ritz. Mike was talking about how U.S. protectionist measures albeit not taxes, were putting several small barriers up to trade and he said to Mr. Ritz: “It’s like a death of….” and then he caught himself and changed his wording. Apparently it was on the 5pm MDL, but edited out of the 8pm repeat.

Sunday was an early rise and our flight back was packed with people again. MP’s Stephen Fletcher, Pierre Poilievre and Jason Kenney were all on board, along with La Presse journalist Joel Denis Bellevance and numerous staffers.

Thus ends my journey to Winnipeg. The Convention experience was fantastic and with it being my first political one, I was quite impressed with how down to earth many of the MPs are and how approachable they are.

I did not mention all of them, but below is a list of MP’s/Senators whom I had the chance to meet while I was there.

Diane Ablonczy
Rona Ambrose
John Baird
Lois Brown
Patrick Brown
Rod Bruinooge
Lawrence Cannon
Michael Chong
Tony Clement
Dean Del Mastro
Barry Devolin
Jay Hill
Peter Kent
Tom Lukiwski
Rob Nicholson
Deepak Obhrai
Gordon O’Connor
Pierre Poilievre
Scott Reid
Chris Warkentin

Senator Marjory LeBreton
Senator Terry Stratton

Candidates (who lost)
Elie Salibi
Rob Zandee

Friday started off with Breakfast in the main dining hall where I spent a few minutes talking to Lois Brown (Newmarket-Aurora). I have family in her riding who used to own a now closed restaurant that was a mainstay there for decades and Mrs. Brown knew them well. This was also the first time I ran into Dr. Roy. He introduced me to the Atheist Conservative and pointed out the Christian Conservative, two other bloggers who were at the Convention.

After breakfast I made my way to the first half of the Social and Democratic Sessions where the two key motions that were debated were P-203 (Human Rights Commission Jurisdiction) and P-207 (Protecting Pregnant Woman). Human Rights Commissions abuse of section 13 may be one the government wants to manage like a surgeon with a scalpel to minimize the media spin on Human Rights, but the grassroots want to beat it with 1000 baseball bats and it was clearly favoured to pass. P-207 being such a special interest subject meant the masses in support of it were there to make sure it went on to Plenary.

The second half of the morning sessions, I shifted over to the Constitutional room where C-107 and C-117 were being debated heavily. These affect how EDA’s with less than 100 members will be represented in votes for leadership as well as the number of delegates. Being hot subjects for the old PC crowd and many Quebec ridings, this one was also defended well and in a split decision went on to Plenary. I was pleased in my selections of rooms to attend as it let me observe some of the very hot topics.

Lunch was lunch.

The afternoon had me floating around a bit and helping a friend promote himself for National Council. While helping him I managed to talk to Michael Chong, Marjory LeBreton, Jim Prentice, and several other dignitaries.

Dinner was not just dinner. We discovered a beer brewed locally called Fort Garry Dark. This was truly a treasure that I found myself asking bartenders about the rest of the weekend. It’s brewed locally without preservatives so is only found in some key places that move enough beer to not let it get stale which explains the freshness that made it so good. Apparently, the brewery that makes Kokanee recently purchased the Fort Garry brewery and is starting to ship it out to other areas of the country. In any case, I was very impressed, and I know my beer.

Post dinner had us attending the Canadian Indian Federation’s room where I was very impressed with the turnout as well as the way the room was managed. Being very supportive of Canadian-Indian relations, I was pleased to discuss the positive aspects of working in conjunction with such a large democracy in an area of the world where we can use some friends.

Thursday afternoon started with lunch at the Elephant and Castle. One of my riding delegates has known Rahim Jaffer for several years and with a second one having worked for him, we took a few minutes to congratulate him on his recent marriage.

While waiting for our food, BT co-founder Stephen Taylor passed by and we chatted for a few. I may be way off base here, but I got the feeling that he is more comfortable in his own skin these days compared to when I first met him at the Manning Centre sessions in Ottawa earlier this year. This is good news because he has a lot to give the movement and will be even more effective when sharing his ideas and passion for the “E” aspects of campaigning.

After a late lunch, things slowed a bit for me until the prep for the keynote speech.

I made my way to the grand ballroom for the keynote speech and as I sat there reading messages on my blackberry, I quickly discovered that with all the different flights in, and all the different hotels, and all the different floors and all the different convention rooms, (and even all the different sections within the grand ballrooms), that the most popular message being texted/emailed to and from friends was “Where r u?”.

The keynote speech was great and pumped everyone up and what I gleened from the various comments made were the following:

a) The Party is working hard to rebrand itself with the phrase “The Conservative Party is Canada’s Party.” This quick, easy to remember phrase, will appear more and more and help to overtake the believe that the Liberals are “Canada’s natural ruling party”.

b) The PM made comments about not being stuck in idealogy and dogma. Translated, to me this meant that the party will be going into deficit and possibly even bailing out specific sectors, which may include the auto sector.

and

c) Laureen Harper truly is the Party’s secret weapon. Having met her on several occasions, I can truly say she is a warm and charming lady with a down to earth attitude that may be more effective at winning people over than any policy that the party will move on.

After the speech, we made our way to Jim Flaherty’s suite for a glass of wine and a toast to the recent election win and after that we slipped down two floors to Peter Van Loan’s party. As I arrived I got a chance to tell him that I would be disappointed that he would not be fielding the bulk of the questions in QP because anyone who can smoothly call Liberal Mark Holland a Nancy Drew deserves credit. His new role as Minister of Public Safety was hyped with some posters with his top “political” safety tips and number 5 was the most humourous. Tip for Garth Turner: When crossing the street, look both ways and walk. But if you are crossing the floor, you must run!!

That wrapped my Thursday.

I was asked by an Ontario National Council candidate to represent him at the draw for speaking order and table assignments which was at 11 am this morning. Ironically, the room it was to be held in was “behind” the security barriers in place (little people in yellow shirts with no guns were considered security hehe) and registration for your badge was not taking place until noon. So I sauntered past three yellow shirted “barriers” until finally one asked me for ID.

I promptly got out my driver’s license and my Conservative Party membership card to show him and he told me that anyone could have printed the membership card off and he would need to see further proof. At this point I pulled out my completely useless “Conservative Party Sustaining Donor Card” (**see note at end as to why I have this card with me if it is completely useless), and he said, that’s fine go ahead.

I then managed to squeeze into the long hallway with meeting rooms everywhere and made my way to the empty room where the lottery was to be held. At that point I got jumped by another yellow shirted “barrier” who dragged me out the other end of the hallway which, luckily, was where registration was. As I was there well before the registration started yet had a reason, they were nice enough to let me register. I ran into Mike Donison who introduced himself. He seems like a very pleasant man.

Following registration, I returned to my hotel room to drop off my kit and went back for the lottery. My friend running for National Council got what I think is the a pretty good table location and the second best speaking spot for Ontario candidates.

Following that I spent some time in the Delta lobby talking to Minister O’Connor, some of my fellow delegates, and I was lucky enough to get some time to talk to and congratulate Minister Tony Clement (Parry Sound – Muskoka) on his victory and I got to meet Winnipeg hometown boy Rod Bruinooge (Winnipeg South) as well as Chris Warkentin (Peace River). While waiting around security showed up and Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife came in, shook a few hands and headed up to their suite.

I’ll be heading out to lunch soon and tracking down some bloggers. Dr. Roy has left me a message so we will likely hook up for a beer at somepoint today.

** Note on sustaining donor card. I just got it in the mail. It is a credit card quality piece of plastic with my name imprinted on it. The card means absolutely nothing to anyone other than to indicate that for 2008, I gave the party some cash. I get one of these beautiful cards annually and usually I promptly toss them into the circular filing cabinet.

Ironically, my more valuable membership card that I have had for several years now is on a flimsy piece of plasticized paper. My information is printed on this card with black inkjet or laserjet and is fading quickly yet I am not slated to get a new card for 2 or more years. Then again, a membership is $10 and I donate far more than that annually so perhaps from a cost perspective things line up a bit better. Still, it would be nice to have a proper membership card in my wallet.

My travel to Winnipeg, as expected, was on a plane full of people I recognized. From seeing Martin Stringer of CPAC checking in, to seeing Walter Robinson in the line up to get on the flight, to having Joël-Denis Bellavance ov La Presse sitting a couple of seats back, to having MP’s Pierre Poilievre and Guy Lauzon walk on the plane just before take off, the flight was fun. I had two of my fellow EDA delegates on board and I had another delegate from Nepean-Carleton whom I know sitting beside me so we gabbed politics the whole flight. My day was starting off on the right foot but would only get better.

Wednesday night is probably going to be the climax of my convention and it hadn’t even started. I ran into an old acquaintance in the lobby of the Delta and while talking we ran into Pierre Poilievre (Nepean-Carleton). Not having dinner plans, Pierre graciously asked me to join him and a few friends for dinner. Little did I know it would be MP’s Jay Hill (Prince George – Peace River), Tim Uppal (Edmonton – Sherwood Park), Brian Jean (Fort McMurray – Athabasca). It was nice to get a call from my MP, Gordon O’Connor (Carleton – Mississippi Mills) and be able to invite him to join us as well. We were also joined by candidate Rob Zandee (BC Southern Interior).

A few other guests turned up to say hi while we dined. Ian and Vida Brodie, Diane Ablonczy, John Baird and a couple of friends from the Nepean-Carleton EDA.

I have to say it was one humour filled evening. Maybe it was the beer, but I was in stitches most of the time with good fun camaraderie, light-hearted ribbing of each other and heavier ribbing of the Liberals.

I hope the fun continues at this pace.