Today is decision day for Craig Chandler.
Today, Ed Stelmach and the Alberta Progressive Conservative Association executive committee will decide the fate of the dually nominated Progressive Conservative candidate in Calgary-Egmont.
As yesterday was this blogger's Birthday (thanks, Blake), I don't think there could be a better present that Ed Stelmach and the Alberta Progressive Conservative Association executive committee could give this blogger than Craig Chandler, Progressive Conservative candidate for Calgary-Egmont.
UPDATE: Ed Stelmach has pretty much done what everyone expected he would do and rejected Craig Chandler's nomination as the PC candidate in Calgary-Egmont. It should be interesting to see what Craig Chandler's next move will be (considering he won the Calgary-Egmont nomination with the support of the large majority of Calgary-Egmont PC members).
Will Stelmach appoint his favorite candidate or let the constituency association hold another nomination meeting?
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Given that they have decided to allow Chandler to be in the meeting, it will only go one of two ways...
ReplyDeleteMr. Chandler manages to behave himself and is allowed to run under the PC banner. (Unlikely)
Mr. Chandler completely wigs out when they are discussing his storied pass and he leaps over the table to try and choke the life from Honest Ed. Ed's security staff are forced to taser Mr. Chandler, which ends up resulting in his death. (More likely)
So, Mr. Premier, now that you've excluded Mr. Chandler on the basis of his well-known intolerance towards homosexuals and gay rights, are you now prepared to do the same with other members of your Cabinet and caucus who well known to have similar views on the subject? For instance, any and all members who participated in drafting or supporting the notorious Bill 208 last year?
ReplyDeleteAre you prepared to engage in the same vetting of members of your caucus, members of your Cabinet, and all other nominated PC candidates to ensure they've never made any negative statements about homosexuals or any other minority group and, if found that any have, are you prepared to ask for their resignations from the PC Party and their seats, accordingly?
My guess is that the answer to any of these questions would be the typical stammering and dithering we've come to expect.
I'm pleased to see that Craig Chandler's nomination hasn't been endorsed. But let's not kid ourselves. When it comes to the PC party, Chandler certainly does not have a monopoly on these views. There are others as well, who have served and will undoutedly continue to serve as sitting MLAs and Cabinet Ministers.
Chandler's biggest problem seems to be that he was publicly open and transparent about what his beliefs; voters in that nomination knew exactly what they were getting. Others in the party who share his views are just smart enough (or opaque enough) to not go public about their views, and instead confine them to private gatherings, legislative sessions and closed-door policy-making venues.
I'm not sure which I'd dislike more -- Craig Chander as MLA, who everybody knows is intolerant and would be watched and monitored accordingly, or Joe Schmo as MLA who will hold himself out as a great guy but behind closed doors and in dark rooms will be not much better than Chandler.
It's pretty clear the Tories would prefer Joe Schmo. (Just as long as he doesn't use the government credit card to embarass them too much.)
I'd like to know why they gave him the boot. It could be because of the comments he made on homosexuality etc but I wouldn't be surprised if it was more for saying he wouldn't tow the party line if elected (see: the video on the main page of his website). If the former didn't irk Stelmach the latter almost certainly would have.
ReplyDeleteCraig Chandler is akin to Saddam Hussien in the context of Canadian culture in my mind . I am NOT PC-but glad he got the boot. He was not even a born and raised Albertan as many of us are-but made the nasty comments he did about political idealism in Alberta.
ReplyDeleteHe appears to have the traits associated with power hungry socio-pathic elitism which have been observed with other ill-willed dictators in history such as Hitler and Hussein. He will do no good in the scope of democratic representation in Alberta. His motives are simply those of ego driven power and control rather than improvement of societal/democratic well being in his riding.
Let us hope that Craig Chandler and his campaign supporters RIP very soon for the sake of all Albertans and the democratic future of this province.
The only hope for a Chandler Redemption is for him to finally come out of the closet and admit that his homophobic rants were just his way of protecting himself.
ReplyDeleteHiding behind his religion and his reigh wing homophobic rhetoric will only work for so long.
Is it Senator Craig's, or MLA Craig's "wide stance" communications style?