Monday, May 21, 2007

And they call it "democracy."


It's almost impossible to make fun of this to the extent that it deserves:

Tories spend thousands to preserve MP's nomination

CALGARY -- The Conservative Party of Canada is on the verge of winning an ugly, expensive fight with its own members in an upscale Calgary riding as MP Rob Anders heads toward his second acclamation in less than a year.

An unprecedented move by the party's national council to deny voting rights to new members in Calgary West is curtailing any potential challenges to Anders in a court-ordered second nomination battle.

Ah, those Tories ... ever the responsible, fiscal stewards:

The court battle to force the Tories into a competitive new nomination race in Calgary West has likely cost the party hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees as it hired some of the most prestigious Calgary law firms.

And we're not quite sure whether to file all of this under "openness", "accountability" or "transparency":

University of Calgary political analyst David Taras says the Tories' solution to the infighting in Calgary West flies in the face of the populist, grassroots-style party that Prime Minister Stephen Harper embraced as a Reformer in the early 1990s.

"What you really want is to have an open nomination process, and the purpose of course is to get the best candidates, to open it up to citizens, to stir involvement and passion. That's what political parties are all about."

"This is the Reform party in reverse. This is closing down memberships, this is not allowing the grassroots to be vocal and shows the great distance that's been travelled between the old Stephen Harper and the new Stephen Harper."

In unrelated news, Canada's Conservative Party is still outraged by the fact that the Liberals are not going to run someone against Green Party leader Elizabeth May, since that kind of cynical, opportunistic political manipulation just makes a mockery of the entire democratic system.

No, seriously.

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