Sunday, April 17, 2011

Helena Guergis is No Michael Chong

http://bit.ly/gD5hki

"Basically, we’re talking about an internal Conservative Party of Canada dispute. As Andy Beaudoin, former head of the Simcoe-Grey riding association, asked at Friday’s press conference: “How reliable is a process which allows one man, [Conservative Party lawyer] Arthur Hamilton, to address the national council, the caucus leadership and the caucus with the recommendation to banish an MP, and no rebuttal or defence is permitted?”

Answer: Not very. Perhaps people will hold it against Mr. Harper and the Conservatives. But if it’s “the worst kind of politics,” as Ms. Guergis said on Friday, it’s not the worst by much. If this had happened to some notably principled Conservative MP — Michael Chong, say — we might have a poster child for better politics. But Ms. Guergis was best known as a not-very-impressive, three-bags-full partisan. Non-partisans can support her on principle, but again, this is the life she chose.

All that said, I hope Ms. Guergis wins on May 2. It would be a pretty impressive middle finger to the Conservative establishment, though it’s questionable if it would eventually accomplish anything for Simcoe-Grey or for Canada. Unfortunately, the real moral of this story seems to be not to let your children grow up to be politicians."

Chris Selley has it right.

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