North America is an election mecca at the moment. The spectacle and pageantry of the American candidate nominations and elections has been in the news for quite some time now, but last week, as I’ve stated in more recent posts, Prime Minister Stephen Harper called an election here in the Great White North as well.
If North America is election mecca, then Nova Scotia is, at least for the time being, the epicentre. Recently, I posted about the scandal that is currently in the news: Green Party Elizabeth May, who is running in a Nova Scotia Riding, as been unceremoniously banned and barred from attending the televised leader’s debate. In addition to that, it would appear that more election gossip and controversy has erupted in Canada’s Ocean Playground.
Recently, the Conservative Party dropped it’s appointed Halifax candidate (that’s right, appointed, not selected by the locals, because our election system has some major flaws.) because she, apparently, has two criminal convictions.
Rosalind Luke was appointed by the Conservatives last Sunday by some, higher-up, party-brass, bureaucrats, because the party couldn’t be bothered to allow the locals to nominate their own candidate. Because of this, the party inadvertently appointed a woman who has a dualistic history; one of community service and championing women’s rights, but also a history of repeated lawbreaking truancy. I am all for second chances and criminal rehabilitation, and I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to Ms. Luke being the nominee, or ultimately even the MP, for Halifax. That’s not the story here. What the problem is is that the Conservatives, after this blunder, are obviously so disconnected from the people and locals that they seek to represent that they overlooked this significant part of Rosalind Luke’s track record.
Luke’s two criminal charges were reportedly something to do with “uttering threats” and “breaching an undertaking,” according to a reputable Nova Scotia news source, The Chronicle Herald.
That’s not all though. In the Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley riding of former Conservative, now-Independent MP Bill Casey, the Conservatives apparently have appointed some random staffer. Basically, this means he or she is some average Joe or Jane that is hardly a public figure, and hardly a selection the locals would have made.
Finally, in my own riding of Kings-Hants, Rosemary Segado, a town councilor in the lovely town of Wolfville, has been appointed as the Conservative nominee. (Once again, another appointment. It would appear that democracy is quickly becoming an archaic term in the collective lexicons of Canada’s major political parties.) I attended elementary school with Segado’s daughter, and have met Segado once when I was much younger. She is a wonderfully charming woman, if my memory serves me correctly. However, that does not excuse the fact that she secured her position as Conservative nominee in an extremely under-handed, undemocratic way.
It is clear from these threefold blunders that the Conservatives have little sympathy for the Nova Scotian, or indeed Maritime, people. Indeed, it is still the Progressive Conservative Party that forms the provincial government here in N.S. Then again, it should not really be a shock. Stephen Harper called ours a “culture of entitlement.” The Conservatives don’t understand the strong tradition of “red” or “socially-responsible” conservatism here, and that really is a shame.
Conservative Nova Scotians, I urge you to not vote Conservative after this nonsensical blundering. Harper is not a Progressive-Conservative.
The Canadian Alliance elements of the amalgamated Conservative Party are shining brightly here in the Maritimes, and I don’t mean that in a positive way.
2 Comments
September 11, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Hello! I’m a graduate of Acadia (poli sci/math), and just came across your blog re: Rosemary Segado – her appointment to the Conservative nomination is bizarrely inexplicable, not least because she has almost no background in the party. I might have met her once, but I did know her husband (see http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/9008394.html) and met her daughter a couple times. I’m not sure if the CPC intended to write-off Kings-Hants… but they’ve done that all the same.
(by the way, regarding your stated intentions below, I’ll say that NDP candidate Carol Harris is quite articulate and friendly – and she’s been preparing for months (over a year really))
September 12, 2008 at 12:50 am
Yeah, I have decided to continue my support for the NDP after Jack Layton reneged on his decision regarding the debate.
I actually met Dr. Harris at the Club Extravaganza at Acadia the other night; it was neat that she attended such an event.