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2008 Federal Election: Tories drop Toronto candidate
- Thread starter King of Kensington
- Start date
299 bloor call control.
Senior Member
Harper's team dumps city-friendly candidate
WARNER MAKES OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Nov 01, 2007 04:30 AM
SUSAN DELACOURT
OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA – The federal Conservatives have ousted their candidate for Toronto Centre, 43-year-old international-trade lawyer Mark Warner, and he says it's because he wanted to play up urban and social issues that are at odds with the master Conservative campaign strategy.
"We've had, for a number of months, a series of differences between our campaign and the national campaign, over the degree to which I could run a campaign that would focus on the kind of issues that matter in a downtown urban riding," Warner told the Star.
Conservative officials have been actively resisting Warner's emphasis on housing, health care and cities issues, he said, even blocking him from participating in a Star forum on poverty earlier this year and pointedly removing from his campaign literature a reference to the 2006 international conference on AIDS in Toronto – which Warner attended but Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not.
Don Plett, Conservative party president, signed the letter that was delivered to Warner this week precisely as the government was unveiling its mini-budget on Tuesday afternoon.
Plett said yesterday he didn't want to elaborate on the decision to oust Warner, for privacy reasons. However, Plett didn't argue with Warner's characterization of the dispute.
"Well let me just simply say this; that in a national campaign, that is exactly what it is – a national campaign. There are certain things that we expect all of our candidates to do in a national campaign," Plett told the Star yesterday.
"You're telling me Mr. Warner has admitted himself that he wasn't prepared to go along with that, then I think he's answered his own question. But I'm not suggesting that. I'm simply saying that we can't discuss the reasons why. If Mr. Warner says that is the reason, then he's, I guess, telling everybody `I wasn't prepared to go along with the rules.'"
Another candidate, Brent Barr, in Guelph, has also been disallowed from running, Plett said.
Barr, like Warner, is shocked and angry – furious at being told he wasn't campaigning enough and, more importantly, that he was failing to enter information from his canvassing into the central party information registry.
"The Conservative party that I'm from doesn't remove a duly nominated candidate. It's supposed to be based on grassroots principles," Barr said.
In Toronto Centre, where Warner has been campaigning hard since being acclaimed as the Conservative candidate in February, his supporters are stunned – and so are the rival candidates who had thought they'd be facing off with him on the ballot.
Bob Rae, former premier and leadership candidate, is the Liberal candidate for the riding, vying to keep the seat for the party after the resignation of Bill Graham in June.
Rae said yesterday he had come to know Warner from a series of public meetings in the riding – he even singled him out to the crowd at the Star poverty forum in May. Rae called Warner "a very fine, public-spirited person" and said "to me, this is just a clear indication of just how controlling and how authoritarian, frankly, the management of the Conservative party is."
Warner, in a press release last night, noted he had been a Conservative since the 1980s, attracted by former prime minister Brian Mulroney's fight against apartheid in South Africa. Warner says in the press release that Harper's version of the Conservative party "cynically pays `lip service' to diversity."
Warner is hinting that he may now consider voting for Rae, though he's still reeling too much from the ouster to make any promises.
"The event is too recent. My beliefs have not changed, but my party has. That said, I think Bob Rae is a decent man, and I have great respect for him."
Connie Harrison, a poverty and housing activist in the St. Jamestown area of Toronto Centre, and a candidate in the 2006 municipal election, says she can't believe the Conservatives would want to close the door to a candidate like Warner.
"They want to prove that they are not scary. It's behaviour like this that tells the rest of us, yes they are," Harrison said in an interview yesterday.
She finds it odd that for all the Tories' talk of outreach to ethnic and cultural communities, they have ousted a black man, born in Trinidad and Tobago, who immigrated to Canada as child in the 1960s and went on to attend Osgoode Hall law school and have a significant career in international trade law.
"I don't want to use this word, but I think there was some discrimination involved," Harrison said.
Plett categorically rejected that suggestion, saying he didn't even know that Warner was black or originally from Trinidad.
"That certainly didn't play into it. His colour was not discussed on either of the calls and the questioning that I did ... that wasn't ever raised, and it certainly was not raised in the national council decision," Plett said.
"I can say that is the furthest thing from the truth because we have ethnics, we have many ethnic people running for our party in different parts of our country. ... We very much want the immigrant population, the ethnic population in our country to support us as we support them."
Harrison said she doesn't normally tilt toward the Conservative party or its candidates, but Warner "wasn't your typical candidate. I think he wanted to stress the urban issues. I think he actually wanted to reach out to communities that hadn't been reached out to before."
Harry Renaud, a former chief financial officer for the Montreal Expos and also a general manager at B.C. Place stadium, is now retired and living in Toronto Centre. He had signed on to be Warner's campaign manager but eventually gave up when he realized that it was going to be a long, drawn-out war with the central Conservative campaign.
Renaud echoed Warner's tales of being warned away from urban issues and social concerns.
He said he often found the Conservatives' central campaign material to be too "vanilla" – out of step with the concerns of Toronto.
"Bigger picture, I think they've written off Toronto," Renaud said. "I think they feel that the Prime Minister is working hard on Quebec and whatever he's going to lose in the GTA, he can get in the West and therefore, he can carve the GTA out and say to hell with you, I'm going in a different direction. ... This is definitely a Liberal lock-hold and if you're in the middle of it, as we are, dead centre, and trying to scream for help, you're a sacrificial lamb."
WARNER MAKES OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Nov 01, 2007 04:30 AM
SUSAN DELACOURT
OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA – The federal Conservatives have ousted their candidate for Toronto Centre, 43-year-old international-trade lawyer Mark Warner, and he says it's because he wanted to play up urban and social issues that are at odds with the master Conservative campaign strategy.
"We've had, for a number of months, a series of differences between our campaign and the national campaign, over the degree to which I could run a campaign that would focus on the kind of issues that matter in a downtown urban riding," Warner told the Star.
Conservative officials have been actively resisting Warner's emphasis on housing, health care and cities issues, he said, even blocking him from participating in a Star forum on poverty earlier this year and pointedly removing from his campaign literature a reference to the 2006 international conference on AIDS in Toronto – which Warner attended but Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not.
Don Plett, Conservative party president, signed the letter that was delivered to Warner this week precisely as the government was unveiling its mini-budget on Tuesday afternoon.
Plett said yesterday he didn't want to elaborate on the decision to oust Warner, for privacy reasons. However, Plett didn't argue with Warner's characterization of the dispute.
"Well let me just simply say this; that in a national campaign, that is exactly what it is – a national campaign. There are certain things that we expect all of our candidates to do in a national campaign," Plett told the Star yesterday.
"You're telling me Mr. Warner has admitted himself that he wasn't prepared to go along with that, then I think he's answered his own question. But I'm not suggesting that. I'm simply saying that we can't discuss the reasons why. If Mr. Warner says that is the reason, then he's, I guess, telling everybody `I wasn't prepared to go along with the rules.'"
Another candidate, Brent Barr, in Guelph, has also been disallowed from running, Plett said.
Barr, like Warner, is shocked and angry – furious at being told he wasn't campaigning enough and, more importantly, that he was failing to enter information from his canvassing into the central party information registry.
"The Conservative party that I'm from doesn't remove a duly nominated candidate. It's supposed to be based on grassroots principles," Barr said.
In Toronto Centre, where Warner has been campaigning hard since being acclaimed as the Conservative candidate in February, his supporters are stunned – and so are the rival candidates who had thought they'd be facing off with him on the ballot.
Bob Rae, former premier and leadership candidate, is the Liberal candidate for the riding, vying to keep the seat for the party after the resignation of Bill Graham in June.
Rae said yesterday he had come to know Warner from a series of public meetings in the riding – he even singled him out to the crowd at the Star poverty forum in May. Rae called Warner "a very fine, public-spirited person" and said "to me, this is just a clear indication of just how controlling and how authoritarian, frankly, the management of the Conservative party is."
Warner, in a press release last night, noted he had been a Conservative since the 1980s, attracted by former prime minister Brian Mulroney's fight against apartheid in South Africa. Warner says in the press release that Harper's version of the Conservative party "cynically pays `lip service' to diversity."
Warner is hinting that he may now consider voting for Rae, though he's still reeling too much from the ouster to make any promises.
"The event is too recent. My beliefs have not changed, but my party has. That said, I think Bob Rae is a decent man, and I have great respect for him."
Connie Harrison, a poverty and housing activist in the St. Jamestown area of Toronto Centre, and a candidate in the 2006 municipal election, says she can't believe the Conservatives would want to close the door to a candidate like Warner.
"They want to prove that they are not scary. It's behaviour like this that tells the rest of us, yes they are," Harrison said in an interview yesterday.
She finds it odd that for all the Tories' talk of outreach to ethnic and cultural communities, they have ousted a black man, born in Trinidad and Tobago, who immigrated to Canada as child in the 1960s and went on to attend Osgoode Hall law school and have a significant career in international trade law.
"I don't want to use this word, but I think there was some discrimination involved," Harrison said.
Plett categorically rejected that suggestion, saying he didn't even know that Warner was black or originally from Trinidad.
"That certainly didn't play into it. His colour was not discussed on either of the calls and the questioning that I did ... that wasn't ever raised, and it certainly was not raised in the national council decision," Plett said.
"I can say that is the furthest thing from the truth because we have ethnics, we have many ethnic people running for our party in different parts of our country. ... We very much want the immigrant population, the ethnic population in our country to support us as we support them."
Harrison said she doesn't normally tilt toward the Conservative party or its candidates, but Warner "wasn't your typical candidate. I think he wanted to stress the urban issues. I think he actually wanted to reach out to communities that hadn't been reached out to before."
Harry Renaud, a former chief financial officer for the Montreal Expos and also a general manager at B.C. Place stadium, is now retired and living in Toronto Centre. He had signed on to be Warner's campaign manager but eventually gave up when he realized that it was going to be a long, drawn-out war with the central Conservative campaign.
Renaud echoed Warner's tales of being warned away from urban issues and social concerns.
He said he often found the Conservatives' central campaign material to be too "vanilla" – out of step with the concerns of Toronto.
"Bigger picture, I think they've written off Toronto," Renaud said. "I think they feel that the Prime Minister is working hard on Quebec and whatever he's going to lose in the GTA, he can get in the West and therefore, he can carve the GTA out and say to hell with you, I'm going in a different direction. ... This is definitely a Liberal lock-hold and if you're in the middle of it, as we are, dead centre, and trying to scream for help, you're a sacrificial lamb."
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Perhaps it's time to give them something separatist to think about instead.
AoD
AoD
299 bloor call control.
Senior Member
It's scary, but I almost have to agree with you AoD. Harper doesn't care, so we have to give him a good reason to. The GTA separationist movement needs to rise up!
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
299:
Well, squeaky wheel gets the grease. Beyond that, there should be a concerted effort by all the urban centres to deal with the issue of urban-rural vote imbalance. There shouldn't be any reason why an urban vote should worth less than rural ones.
AoD
Well, squeaky wheel gets the grease. Beyond that, there should be a concerted effort by all the urban centres to deal with the issue of urban-rural vote imbalance. There shouldn't be any reason why an urban vote should worth less than rural ones.
AoD
rpgr
Active Member
C'mon, everyone say it with me now:
"HIDDEN AGENDA"
You know Harper has it!
"HIDDEN AGENDA"
You know Harper has it!
King of Kensington
Senior Member
So the guy was apparently dumped for (horror of horrors) attending the AIDS conference and supporting affordable housing.
Red Tories are the only kind of Conservatives that can do remotely well in that riding...David Crombie and David Macdonald were the reddest of Red Tories, the PC's always outpolled Reform/Alliance in the Chretien years and with Harper at the helm they were lucky to get their deposit back.
Red Tories are the only kind of Conservatives that can do remotely well in that riding...David Crombie and David Macdonald were the reddest of Red Tories, the PC's always outpolled Reform/Alliance in the Chretien years and with Harper at the helm they were lucky to get their deposit back.
rpgr
Active Member
You know, I was beginning to warm a bit to the Conservatives and would have considered voting for them in the next election if it meant we could have a stable government to ride the high wave of the current loonie.
Yet moves like these just serve to remind me that the Conservatives are still only Reform/Alliance in blue coats. Oh well, just proves you can't seperate policies from the politicians. Good old "hidden agenda".
Yet moves like these just serve to remind me that the Conservatives are still only Reform/Alliance in blue coats. Oh well, just proves you can't seperate policies from the politicians. Good old "hidden agenda".
299 bloor call control.
Senior Member
This is where I wished the national media would jump on a story like this... it seems like besides The Star and the Toronto section of the Globe, there's been no coverage of this outside the 416. Why is it relevant? Because now you have this guy coming out and saying how horribly controlling the national group was when they are claiming to be local, grassroots politics, ousting a very dedicated community man, just because he championed causes that we as Canadians in general support? It's something everyone should be concerned about. Not to mention the apparent disregard to the fact that the byelection has to occur by the end of the year and the Conservatives are more than happy to dump their candidate (knowing they'll lose the riding to the Liberals anyway) just to keep their shutters shut.
299 bloor call control.
Senior Member
= = FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE = =
RED TORY FIRED FROM DOWNTOWN TORONTO ELECTORAL RACE
"Federal Conservative Party has no interest in engaging with urban Canada"
TORONTO -- October 31, 2007 – Today, after ten months of campaigning, Mark Warner, the Federal Conservative Candidate for Toronto Centre, withdrew as the Conservative Candidate for Toronto Centre in the upcoming Federal election/by-election.
Over the objections of leaders of the Toronto Centre riding association Mr. Warner was removed by the Party's National Campaign Manager, Doug Finley, and its National Council President Don Plett, of Landmark Manitoba for trying to tailor the Party's message to be relevant to Toronto Centre. Mr. Warner said that "this decision made no sense" and explained that "every brand manager knows that even McDonald's offers lobster rolls in Nova Scotia and beer in France!"
One of a growing number of former Progressive Conservative candidates to be removed, Mr. Warner said that he "fought this arbitrary process to the end because of its importance to my supporters and volunteers in the Toronto Centre Riding Association and to the voters and community at large."
An international lawyer who has worked around the world and holds Masters degrees in both law and economics, Mr. Warner expressed his disappointment. Mr. Warner stated that while he expected the fight in Toronto Centre to be tough against his high-profile Liberal opponent, he never expected that he would be forced to spend so much of his energy campaigning against his own party's lack of interest in winning in Toronto Centre, and dealing with his own Party's increasingly well-publicized "micro-management from a distance" as he attempted to “strengthen the urban voice that has been regrettably absent from our current national government"
"I joined the Party when Brian Mulroney was the strongest voice for Nelson Mandela's freedom. Unfortunately, I have found that the Conservative Party today, by its actions, is not the inclusive Party that I once believed in. The Conservative Party today cynically pays "lip service" to diversity and outreach to minority communities in Canada."
Mr. Warner went on to express "his sincerest gratitude to all those who have volunteered and offered their support and encouragement since we began this journey in February. "I trust that they will exercise their vote accordingly to ensure that they obtain the best federal representation possible in the riding's next election."
# # #
– 30 –
RED TORY FIRED FROM DOWNTOWN TORONTO ELECTORAL RACE
"Federal Conservative Party has no interest in engaging with urban Canada"
TORONTO -- October 31, 2007 – Today, after ten months of campaigning, Mark Warner, the Federal Conservative Candidate for Toronto Centre, withdrew as the Conservative Candidate for Toronto Centre in the upcoming Federal election/by-election.
Over the objections of leaders of the Toronto Centre riding association Mr. Warner was removed by the Party's National Campaign Manager, Doug Finley, and its National Council President Don Plett, of Landmark Manitoba for trying to tailor the Party's message to be relevant to Toronto Centre. Mr. Warner said that "this decision made no sense" and explained that "every brand manager knows that even McDonald's offers lobster rolls in Nova Scotia and beer in France!"
One of a growing number of former Progressive Conservative candidates to be removed, Mr. Warner said that he "fought this arbitrary process to the end because of its importance to my supporters and volunteers in the Toronto Centre Riding Association and to the voters and community at large."
An international lawyer who has worked around the world and holds Masters degrees in both law and economics, Mr. Warner expressed his disappointment. Mr. Warner stated that while he expected the fight in Toronto Centre to be tough against his high-profile Liberal opponent, he never expected that he would be forced to spend so much of his energy campaigning against his own party's lack of interest in winning in Toronto Centre, and dealing with his own Party's increasingly well-publicized "micro-management from a distance" as he attempted to “strengthen the urban voice that has been regrettably absent from our current national government"
"I joined the Party when Brian Mulroney was the strongest voice for Nelson Mandela's freedom. Unfortunately, I have found that the Conservative Party today, by its actions, is not the inclusive Party that I once believed in. The Conservative Party today cynically pays "lip service" to diversity and outreach to minority communities in Canada."
Mr. Warner went on to express "his sincerest gratitude to all those who have volunteered and offered their support and encouragement since we began this journey in February. "I trust that they will exercise their vote accordingly to ensure that they obtain the best federal representation possible in the riding's next election."
# # #
– 30 –
MisterF
Senior Member
CBC carried the story last night. Don't know about any other media though.
adma
Superstar
Well, it might just be a "sod you, we can win without you" move on the Tories' part. Sort of like how the the Maggie Thatcher Tories allowed onetime solid Tory seats in Liverpool/Manchester/Glasgow to die on the vine...
allabootmatt
Senior Member
Oddly enough, I think Stephane Dion may be smarter right now than he appears, or than he even knows for that matter. The Tories are clearly feeling emboldened by the failure of the Liberals to defeat the mini-budget and other major legislation, and as a result they are starting to drop the moderate stance they've (mostly) adhered to so far. Between this stunt, the recent revelation that in utter contravention of our long-standing policy (and, you could argue, Canadian law) they will no longer contest foreign death sentences on Canadians, and trying to muzzle Rick Hillier their true colours, as it were, are coming out.
The best thing for the Liberals to do might be to let this play out for a while to remind Canadians what we're really dealing with, and that these people do not represent our mainstream values as a society. The Tories/Reform party may turn out to be their own worst enemies after all, and make clear that choosing between them and the Grits really is an important choice about Canada's direction.
It's incredibly disturbing to me that a 'national' party would so blatantly write off not just the country's biggest city, but pretty much all of urban Ontario. Luckily for us, though, whatever the Tories think it is truly impossible to win a majority without a significant haul in ON, and it amazes me that they could believe otherwise. Seems like pretty simple arithmetic.
The best thing for the Liberals to do might be to let this play out for a while to remind Canadians what we're really dealing with, and that these people do not represent our mainstream values as a society. The Tories/Reform party may turn out to be their own worst enemies after all, and make clear that choosing between them and the Grits really is an important choice about Canada's direction.
It's incredibly disturbing to me that a 'national' party would so blatantly write off not just the country's biggest city, but pretty much all of urban Ontario. Luckily for us, though, whatever the Tories think it is truly impossible to win a majority without a significant haul in ON, and it amazes me that they could believe otherwise. Seems like pretty simple arithmetic.
adma
Superstar
The simple arithmetic is: hold on to what they got in Ontario, pick up a score or more seats in Quebec, a scattering elsewhere in Ontario + BC, hang on to dear life to whatever else in the Maritimes, and--majority. Who needs the cities...
Again, worked for Margaret Thatcher.
allabootmatt
Senior Member
Though many of their Ontario seats are marginal, and made more so by the gov's piss-off treatment of any Ontario concerns (equalization, etc).