Here are the Campaign Objectives:
Had enough of the Conservatives, their political gamesmanship and abuse of power? We've seen this government side-step Parliament through prorogation, committee boycotts and stonewalling. We've witnessed unprecedented secrecy, limits on media access, brinkmanship, and outright untruths. Without real consequences for these abuses, why should we expect any change from our politicians?
Catch 22 Harper Conservatives is a grassroots campaign to provide real consequences for the Conservatives’ disrespect of voters and Parliament. The objective of the campaign is to organize voters into an electoral force that will:
1) Contribute to the defeat of the Conservative government. We can achieve this by targeting at least 22 vulnerable, sitting Conservative MPs across Canada (at least one MP for each day of prorogation!) To succeed, we are proposing on-the-ground campaigns in selected ridings to hand out pro-democracy literature - before an election is called.
2) Raise awareness about Canada's democratic deficit, including our antiquated first-past-the-post voting system. The Conservatives aren't the first party in Canada to abuse their authority. We need a game-changer to improve accountability, transparency, representation and advance democracy.
Here are the targetted ridings/incumbents:
British Columbia
Kamloops–Thompson–Cariboo, Cathy McLeod
North Vancouver, Andrew Saxton
Surry North, Dona Cadman
Vancouver Island North, John Duncan
Prairies
Saskatoon–Rosetown–Biggar, Kelly Block
Palliser, Roy Boughen
Saint Boniface, Shelley Glover
Ontario
Brant, Phil McColeman
Essex, Jeff Watson
Haldimand–Norfolk, Diane Finley
Huron–Bruce, Benjamin Lobb
Kenora, Greg Rickford
Kitchener–Waterloo, Peter Braid
Kitchener Centre, Stephen Woodworth
London West, Ed Holder
Mississauga–Erindale, Bob Dechert
Oakville, Terence Young
Oshawa, Collin Carrie
Ottawa–Orléans, Royal Galipeau
Ottawa West –Nepan, John Baird
Quebec
Beauport–Limoilou, Sylvie Boucher
Pontiac, Lawrence Cannon
Roberval–Lac-Saint-Jean, Denis Lebel
Atlantic Canada
Fredericton, Keith Ashfield
Miramichi, Tilly O'Neill-Gordon
Saint John, Rodney Weston
South Shore–St. Margaret's,Gerald Keddy
West Nova, Greg Kerr
Egmont, Gail Shea
North
Nunavut, Leona Aglukkaq
There are now local groups in the various ridings. Most are small yet, but the most popular one has 13 members.
I've said it before -- the Opposition is fucking useless. We have to do this ourselves.
Is your riding -- or one nearby -- on the list? Maybe you've got friends or relatives in the targetted ridings who need to know about this campaign.
Spread far and wide.
Canada can't take much more of this:
10 comments:
He looks like he's strangling the cat.
I'm surprised only 3 ridings in Quebec are targetted. I will look into seeing if we can't more off. Perhaps we can arrange to Montmagny-l'Islet-Kamouraska-Riviere du Loup back to the Bloc. It had been a Bloc stronghold for as long as I can remember. It's the Lower-St-Lawrence and it's rural. Unilingual French. While Bernard Genereux was a popular mayor in the town of Ste-Anne-de-la-Pocatiere, the Bloc's Nancy Gagnon was leading up to the 11th hour in last November's by-election, when Steve got his illiterate hockey puppet, Jacques Demers out to campaign over there, and all of a sudden, some typical Harpercon bribery was offered.
More on that here:
http://sistersagesmusings.blogspot.com/2009/11/disappointing-although-not-surprising.html
Unless Steve made good on his promise of the money, I think the Bloc can take back the riding, especially if they find a 'star'; someone as well respected or even more so from the region.
Also, as distasteful as this may sound to many of your readers outside Quebec, if Duceppe continues the sovereignty momentum, I suspect the Bloc could also take back more of the Quebec City ridings. Folks in and around Quebec City may be conservative in thinking, but they're separatists above all.
What about Clement's riding in Muskoka, I've heard rumblings that he's basically burnt as an MP. He's made too much of an ass out of himself?
Plus, there's always Simcoe-Grey, I know Guergis is independent, but what's the likelihood of her winning there? And how good are the chances for the Harpecon candidate? I hear they're going to be running the mayor of Barrie. I've also heard rumours that they wanted to run a 'star' Dr Kellie Leitch, prominent orthopedic surgeoan at TO Sick Kids, professor at Western and Con activist.
Some things to ponder.
I'm surprised Rod Bruinooge (Winnipeg South) is not on the list. It was Reg Alcock's riding before that for quite a few terms (since 1993) and Rod Bruinooge barely squeaked in when he defeated Reg Alcock in 2006. Not sure if Bruinooge would have been re-elected if Alcock had run again.
That photo has always struck me as staged and now I know why.
If Stevie Spiteful were a genuine feline lover, that blue sweater of his would be napped with cat fur.
Few know that Harper was asking the photographer what wine goes best with cat.
I'm from an old Reform/Alliance riding where our Con MP is a total dud - a fundamentalist evangelical, Israel booster, eternal backbencher, do nothing. The NDP at least make a half-hearted effort to challenge him. The LPC campaign signs begin gradually popping up a few weeks prior to election day but if you want to know anything about the Liberal candidate you have to dig it out yourself.
With the opposition forfeiting elections this joker wins rather handily by default. Grrr.
Of course this is a two way street. The Conservatives can (and will) target vulnerable opposition seats and in fact there are more of them than vulnerable Conservative seats.
Tom, this is different from usual politics. This campaign is completely grassroots; regular citizens getting involved, NOT political parties.
Thanks for the (re)plug Fern. And thanks to your readers for the constructive suggestions which we are looking into. The Montmagny-l'Islet-Kamouraska-Riviere du Loup by-election slipped our attention.
As for the others, we've always intended to consider expansion to harder to win ridings.
We've been trying to build capacity to get involved in Con-held ridings. We'll be discussing opposition held ridings (it's very clear that the Cons are targeting some of them) in the next few days. If Guergis runs as an independent (and splits the right wing vote), we will add it to our list. We've been tossing Clement's riding around for a few months and are keeping our eyes on it.
Gary
Catch 22 campaign co-ordinator
You are most welcome, Gary. If we all do our bit, we can get rid of these thugs.
You list Brant as a targeted electoral riding. Please check out this blog that is critical of Brant MP Phil McColeman: http://dumpphil.blogspot.com/
c'est bien amusant le montage avec les chats!;)
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