Thursday, September 4, 2008

Why do Tory MP's have no faith in Harper?

Remember when a whole rash of Liberal MP announced they would either be resigning before the next election, or wouldn't be running again? The Tories were quick to pounce, saying that with each resignation that the Liberal Party was falling apart under Dion's leadership, that Liberal MP's knew that Dion would lose the next election, that Dion was not a leader, blah blah blah...

So if Dion is so weak, and the Tories are so confident of victory, why are 14 Tory MP's, including 3 Ministers, not running under Stephen Harper's leadership? Obviously, Conservative MP's are nervous about their chances of being elected back into government under Harper's leadership, and rather then facing a return to the opposition benches, a full 11% of the caucus has turned it's back on the Harper program. Furthermore, look at candidate recruitment. While the Liberals in the past days have recruited the former Regina Chief of Police Calvin Johnston (wait, I thought the Liberals were soft on crime?), and the former President of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Bob Friesen (wait, I thought farmers and rural Canadians hate the Green Shift?), the best the Conservatives can muster is a former Winnipeg Jets hockey player (who unlike Ken Dryden, is not exactly accomplished off the ice) in what is probably the safest NDP seat in the country, and a former PC MP in Quebec, whose roots and devotion to the Stephen Harper Conservatives are so deep that he refused to sit with the party after they were formed, and endorsed the Liberal candidate in his riding in the 2004 election.

So again, if the Liberals and Dion are as weak as the Tories like to say, and that Harper's leadership will show the Tories into a bright new mandate, why haven't the Conservatives been able to land high-profile candidates, and why are so many MP's stepping down? If we use the Conservative logic that they used on Dion, the answer is simple: Harper has lost control over his caucus of extremists, high-level Tories already have knives at the ready, and the most damning of all: Stephen Harper is not a leader.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

They want to get rid of the Liberals, so they will bribe and buy the election. as well as go over the limit,as they did last time, with so much money.

Anonymous said...

There is a small difference, the Liberal MPs (high profile ones too) left in the middle of the session.

It is common for MPs (of all parties) to announce they are not running just before an election. Less common to resign in the middle.

Anonymous said...

Solberg has trouble keeping his zipper up. That's why he's been pushed.

Anonymous said...

do you have a list of the 14 MP's?
that would help.
Thanks

William Norman said...

You can find the list of retiring MP from all parties here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/40th_canadian_federal_election#Incumbent_MPs_not_running_for_re-election