Swamp Wins—Conservative Convention, by Brian Peckford

by The Honourable A. Brian Peckford

Peckford42.wordpress.com

September 9, 2023

Report 2 —Conservative Party of Canada Convention —Quebec City , Happening Now—Ethics Again —Convention Fails—Swamp Wins !

The Hill Times newspaper out of Ottawa is reported that the Convention rejected a resolution that would have seen  lobbyists disqualified from serving  on the National Council of the Party.

Now this would have been a step forward.

The news report states:

‘The federal Conservatives voted down a resolution today that called for disallowing lobbyists and vendors from seeking a national council position, one day before the vote for a new national council is scheduled to take place.

In advance of the start of the three-day Conservative Party policy conference in Québec City, the riding associations sponsoring the resolution calling for disallowing lobbyists and vendors from seeking a seat at the table had set up a website and campaigned against national council candidates who are either lobbyists or vendors for the party.

“There are at least 5 [sic] lobbyists running for national council. 3 [sic] come from the same firm,” reads the opening sentence of the website nolobbyistsoncouncil.ca. ‘

The resolution had a lot of  riding support throughout the country .

The news report provides the wording of the resolution and those ridings in support :

‘Already there are exclusions to who can run for national council and this expands the list to others who are typically more prone to have a personal interest in a matter that could conflict with the broad national interest,” reads the resolution. “We should want to avoid electing candidates who have to recuse themselves from voting due to a conflict of interest because then the province who elected that candidate will suffer relative under-representation when the matter comes to a vote, without a voice at the table. That further disenfranchises the members in that province. Best to proactively reduce those circumstances as much as possible with the additional filtering criteria for optimizing national council candidates.”

The resolution entitled “Eligibility to stand for election to national council” had been sponsored by the Conservative electoral district association (EDA) of Vancouver Centre, B.C., and co-sponsored by 14 other ridings, including Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill, Ont.; Carlton Trail-Eagle Creek, Sask.; North Okanagan-Shuswap, B.C.; Burnaby North-Seymour, B.C.; Foothills, Alta.; Steveston-Richmond East, B.C.; Souris-Moose Mountain, Sask.; Abbotsford, B.C.; Outremont, Que.; South Surrey-White Rock, B.C.; Peterborough-Kawartha, Ont.; Vancouver Quadra, B.C.; Vancouver East, B.C.; and Port Moody-Coquitlam, B.C.’

Interesting most if the ridings supporting the resolution are from Western Canada , with BC having more ridings supporting than any other Province. Quebec has only one and The Atlantic Provinces did not have any ridings supporting the resolution.

Sadly here again the Conservative Party of Canada had an opportunity to stand up for integrity in political parties , and political governance. I could find nothing about this resolution on the  party’s website highlighting the resolution to come before the convention.

There was even a website set up to support the resolution : www.nolobbyistsoncouncil.ca .

Existing mainstream political parties are incapable of advancing ethics principles  .

The system must change—new political parties—-

“Justice must not only be done, but must also be seen to be done”. This dictum was laid down by Lord Hewart, the then Lord Chief Justice of England in the case of Rex v. Sussex Justices, [1924] 1 KB 256.”

Why was it only Maxime Bernier among political leaders who stood up for our Charter rights of assembly and free speech, and travel ? Was arrested ! And who is still fighting in court with me on the Federal Travel Ban!

Canadians are slow to change —and democracy , and hence ethics and honesty , suffers.