Monday, November 27, 2006

"The Group of Five" - an endangered species?

Tansi/Good Day Folks:

It seems there's a lot more to Denis Rocan being defeated for the Carman, Manitoba nomination in the next provincial election than was reported in the recent Winnipeg Free Press article.

The political blogging community appears to have taken it as a given Progressive Conservative leader Hugh McFadyen was behind Mr. Rocan's ouster and may be trying to engineer the same fate for Portage La Prairie Member David Faurschou. Here's what we find interesting.

Both these gentleman were part of "The Group of Five" who independently publicly endorsed David Chartrand's candidacy as MMF President in the lead up to the June 2006 Federation election. According to what should be a very reliable, knowledgeable source, a third member who advocated on behalf of President Chartrand was also on the Party's radar but it was decided not to proceed because they were too firmly ensconced to dislodge from their Riding.

Perhaps the late Jacquiline Kennedy Onassis said it best, "Politics is a game of knives."

Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk
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Friday November 24, 2006

The Tory eat-our-own strategy marches on - this past week we've seen two hand-picked Huey-ites win nominations in "safe" PC seats. The most interesting of course was the defeat of incumbent Denis Rocan in Carman, with the leaders' office fingerprints all over the effort.

Similarly, there's likely an upcoming coup heading David Faurschou's way in Portage in favour of another of Huey's close allies. It's no secret Hugh and Co. are behind the effort to dump Faurschou also.

Why so much Tory effort in ridings they are likely not in too much danger of losing? Centralization of Hugh's power on the party seems the most likely answer. Far be it from us to suggest focusing on strong candidates for swing ridings would likely be a better use of his time.

Meanwhile, congrats are in order to Jennifer Howard in Fort Rouge, who edged out James Allum on Wednesday night on the first ballot. A simple, straight-forward nomination race with no blood on the floor at the end of the night. Hmm, compare and contrast.

Again, though, the main issue for the NDP is that the Fort Rouge contest had a selection of quality candidates who either ran, or had been close to running for the nomination: Jennifer, Jamie ... as well as Donne Flanagan and Pete Reimer.

Four quality young candidates who would likely have been assets in a refreshed caucus. Instead, Gary Doer only gets one fresh face while seeking a third term.

It would have been much better to do some work to encourage retirements from the class of 1990 and earlier and renewed the team more thoroughly.

Source: http://blackberryaddicts.blogspot.com/2006/11/to-hell-with-poverty.html

Post: "To Hell With Poverty"

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