Conservatives MPs are apparently feuding in caucus over Brian Mulroney; Conservatives in one Calgary riding are fighting for the right to hold a nomination meeting to replace incumbent Conservative MP Rob Anders; and now, another long-running feud in eastern Alberta is heating up again.
The newly elected board of Conservative riding association in Vegreville-Wainwright — a board that the incumbent MP Leon Benoit didn't want elected — and the national council of the Conservative Party are at odds over the rights to hold a nomination meeting.
Leon Benoit (left) has survived other challenges from within his own riding association. Benoit, who grew wheat and canola on his own farm while acting as a farm economist with Alberta Agriculture before going into politics, is among the “Class of 1993”, one of the MPs who rolled into Ottawa on the first Reform wave led by Preston Manning. That group included such rock-ribbed Reformers as recently retired Bob Mills (Red Deer), Myron Thompson (Wild Rose), and Art Hanger, (Calgary Northeast), as well as folks like Monte Solberg (Medicine Hat) and current Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl (Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon).
So what's with Benoit? Unlike Anders — whose parliamentary career has not exactly been filled with a lot of highlights — the Conservative leadership has had enough confidence in Benoit that it made him a committee chairman in the current Parliament and the last two. Committee chairs are not handed out lightly and can often be testing grounds for future cabinet material.
Now, that said, while some committee chairs — I'm thinking here of people like Edmonton's James Rajotte — earn the respect of their opposition colleagues and do a reasonable job of producing good work without excessive partisan rancour, Benoit may not be one of those. In the last Parliament, while he chaired the committee on International Trade, he so frustrated NDP MP Peter Julian that Julian once filibustered a committee meeting and then was set, along the with the Liberals, to try to unseat him. Benoit eventually adjourned the committee permanently. (An opposition vice-chair reconvened the committee). Benoit never went back, moving on instead to chair the natural resources committee, where he continues in the current Parliament.
Benoit's riding association president Danny Hozack told the local paper, he wants a nomination meeting not so that Vegreville voters can pass judgement on Benoit “but a referendum on fair elections. “We just want to make sure everyone gets out and votes.”
The Conservative national council recently ruled that MPs won't have to worry about facing nomination battles. In other words, incumbents are safe. (Edmonton MP Mike Lake faced down a nasty challenge from Tim Uppal during the last Parliament and Lake complained that he was forced to leave Ottawa to sell memberships and beat back Uppal's challenge. Uppal would later find another seat in Edmonton when John Williams Ken Epp retired and Uppal was elected in 2008.)
“At a time like this when we are focusing so much and working hard with a serious financial crisis, it’s hardly time to take our attention away to fight nominations,” Benoit told the Lloydminster Meridian Booster . “I know the Prime Minister was very concerned that MPs (would) have their focus taken away from the business at hand.”
Now, Hozack might be talking a good game about the right to fair election but his history with Benoit suggests he very much wants a referendum on Benoit. The last time there was a nomination battle in Vegreville, Hozack backed a guy named Len Landry against Benoit.
Now, at this point, I'm relying on what I can dig up in the Meridian Booster, The Wainwright Review, and some other local papers but there appears to be a bit of a personal beef between Benoit and Hozack. As always, I look forward to your comments below or e-mail messages to flesh this out a bit.
Hozack, during the 2006 election, suggested publicly that Benoit was “losing ground”, a comment Benoit wasn't exactly thrilled about seeing in print. Much internal riding association politicking later, the riding association members gathered in January to elect their 30-person executive. Well, it looks like it was a helluva fight. According to the Wainwright Review, 53 people stood for that election. Benoit got up and argued that Conservatives ought to back all of the incumbents. A lot — 28! — of those Benoit-friendly incumbents lost. Benoit's son, running for the board, lost.
Hozack's people won. Hozack and Landry, who once lost the nomination battle to unseat Benoit, are now heavyweights on the board of Benoit's riding association.
“One wonders where this frustration is coming from. After all Leon did better in the last election than ever before,” wrote columnist Roger Holmes in the Wainwright Edge after the January board elections. “Perhaps the conservatives in this area are mad about the Harper government flip flops. Perhaps they are mad about being lied to regarding fixed election dates. Perhaps they mad about this government's broken promise never to run a deficit. Perhaps they mad about the government decision to cut and run in Afghanistan in 2011. Perhaps they mad about an MP who is on record in the beginning that MP's should have limited terms wanting to keep on having his term extended.”
The riding association fights in Anders riding in Calgary and in Benoit's riding on the Saskatchewan border are not inconsequential fights. The winner of these squabble becomes an MP. Benoit won the last election with 77 per cent of votes cast. He thinks it was because voters there like him. Others — other Conservatives — think it was because voters in Vegreville-Wainwright just like to vote for the blue team, not matter who is carrying the banner.
Technorati Tags: conservatives, leon benoit, Alberta
One should be careful not to read too much into internal party politics at the riding level. There are a few issues with this article that should be kept in mind.
First, some facts are wrong here. Specifically, Tim Uppal did not run in John Williams' former riding. Brent Rathgeber did. I wonder what other facts have been confused here.
Also, comments by Roger Holmes need to be taken in context. He is a fine person and a community leader in Wainwright, but his personal politics run against the grain of the vast majority of voters in the riding. He can be expected to stir whatever dissent he thinks is possible within the Conservative party. This is a man who publicly supported the Dion-Ignatieff-Layton-Duceppe attempt to overthrow the election of last fall.
Last, your comment on the existence of a personal rift between Mr. Benoit and Mr. Hozack is observant. They are both good people and I consider both of them to be friends of mine. I volunteered alongside them in two elections and whatever issues exist at the riding level are magnified by what's under the surface between them. I've heard both sides of the story but it would be hearsay to get into it and I think both individuals are gentlemen enough not to air personal issues in public.
For me the bottom line is that the voters in Vegreville-Wainwright should be represented by the best MP possible, and Canada needs a strong Conservative Party so that we never go back to the days of Liberal majorities by default.
This Edmonton Journal story sheds some light on the process that put Tim Uppal in Edmonton-Sherwood Park, Ken Epp's old riding, and inspired James Ford to run as an independent against him (and lose by only 1668 votes.)
Thanks for the reminder, Glen, that Uppal replaced Ken Epp and not John Williams.
It's a shame we couldn't hear more about “both sides of the story” for, as I mentioned, this nomination battle, like most in Alberta right now, is the de facto race for the MP's job.
It is interesting to note how concerned about Mr. Mulroney's feelings some Liberals and their MSM cronies now are. Where were those same concerns when Liberal MP Shawn Murphy made this comment in the House:
From a CBC report:
“Get tough on crime, bring forth Brian Mulroney! Hang him high, hang Mulroney! Let's get this Mulroney before the courts as soon as possible and hang him high! We gotta get Mulroney, put a noose on his head, put a noose on his head. Get tough on crime.”
All that is now forgotten, of course. Week after week, month after month, the Liberals clamoured for a public inquiry, all the while sullying Mr. Mulroney's name.
First they pilloried the man, and now their leader says this (from a Globe and Mail Steven Chase story):
“A lot of Canadians have a lot of respect for Mr. Mulroney's strengths, and you have to show some respect. It's simple. And I believe that Mr. Harper is lacking respect towards Mr. Mulroney,” Mr. Ignatieff told reporters in Calgary.
He said that while there is “controversy surrounding Mr. Mulroney” the Montrealer is still a former prime minister. “I have respect for the institution and I have respect for the character of the person.”
Sure. “I have respect for the character of the person” but my party has merely accused him of taking bribes and of having taken a $2.1 million settlement when he shouldn’t have.
Hypocrites.
Ha! Gabby just pulled the tinfoil hat brigades favourite line – “where were the media?” (sorry, “MSM). Then she quoted the media. Hilarity. Don't quite your day job Gabby.
mmmm, maybe Benoit's constituents don't recognize him anymore. Go to Google Images and search Leon Benoit… apparently it's not only his hairdresser who knows for sure.
Two corrections:
-Conservative MPs dont enjoy absolute nomination protection. All members in incumbent held ridings by now have received a ballot asking if they want a new nomination process. If 2/3 ask for one, there will be one. This is effectively a membership referendum on incumbent MPs. Cynics may point out that the 2/3 threshhold is so high that MPs are effectively protected, but a little accuracy doesn't hurt.
-The association fights are inconsequential. There's no cause for saying that the winner becomes an MP. While associations have influence in the running of a nomination process that can favour certain candidates, they have no influence in the decision to hold a nomination contest. At all. Either 2/3 of the members vote for a contest and submit ballots, or they don't. National Council will not rewrite the rules for two boards who don't like their MP.
True, but they would have access to the membership lists, in order to stage a campaign to influence the outcome, one that people without access to the lists would find it harder to compete with.
“Don't quite your day job Gabby.”
“quite”?
You'll have to be more original, trying to keep me quiet with your “tinfoil hat” description of me. Maybe you should quit regurgitating the same tired put-downs. It's quite silly.
P.S.: get yourself a name, instead of hiding your “light” under a bushel.
Hmm, I don't know why in the “reply” function this comment is seen as posted by “Anonymous.”
“Re: Re: Conservatives feuding in eastern Alberta?
by Anonymous
Ha! Gabby just pulled the tinfoil hat brigades favourite line – “where were the media?” (sorry, “MSM). Then she quoted the media. Hilarity. Don't quite your day job Gabby.”
That explains my P.S. in my previous comment.