Late last week I wrote the following words:
Oh good grief ... why oh why did
I ever even consider looking at something A___ T___ had written ... it has been months since
"I" let him get my blood boiling. Argghhhh! Is the reason he hates the BC Conservatives,
almost as much as the NDP, because he didn't get a personal invitation to share
all of his political acumen with the party??
One person posed the question, “Interesting point - I wonder if that is
the case with him?”
Another said, “A___ passed his "best-before" date years
ago. Bitter, bitter man.”
Meantime, someone with an ounce (or is that a milligram?) of smarts, that
wasn’t reading him, said, “What did he write this time?”
A___ T ___ wrote the following I said; "The
problem is the continuing gong show that has become the BC Conservative Party.
Missed opportunities on various issues lately and their mixed messaging on the
by-elections has given rise to rumors that their ascension may have
stalled..."
To which I responded, “It would
be nice if he'd either say nothing at all, or look at the people making the
decision and give them some credit for having some political smarts”. Well a reply was not long in showing up that
brought my blood pressure down a NOTCH OR TWO:
Not only that, but his “analysis” in the paragraph you cite, Alan, is so
far off the mark at to be laughable; especially in the context of the two
by-elections he's specifically referencing here.
Is it the BC Conservatives who've lost a potential "star
candidate" (a long-time mayor of Poco) to the NDP? No ... that former Poco mayor is now running
for the NDP.
Is it the BC Conservatives who've lost another potential candidate
because of an abysmal electoral showing just 6 months ago? No ... that would be the Liberal candidate
who backed out - by her own admission because of her poor electoral record.
If there's a "gong show" going on here, it sure ain't in the
BCCP camp! Makes you wonder what planet
is T____ from...
Meantime, over the weekend, the North Shore News had an opinion piece, from
Trevor Lautens, entitled, Gentleman
John extraordinarily ordinary. Here
is just a bit of what he had to say:
THE most terrifying man in British Columbia slipped in and out of West Vancouver last week. Where was our vaunted national security network when we really needed it?Aw, just funnin'. Gentleman John Cummins is no threat - except to the B.C. Liberal government and its true believers, their ranks thinning. For them every day is Halloween and the Conservative leader is the bogeyman in the shadows of provincial politics, who they contradictorily have to try to ignore and are forced to spread his name whenever they scoff that nobody believes in ghosts anyway ….Cummins is a study. Has no glowing charisma; Pierre Trudeau's is safe in memory. No sweeping oratorical gifts; Churchill sleeps undisturbed. No hunky good looks; Gregor Robertson confidently set his jaw on those. But now turning to Cummins' negatives. . . .… British Columbians, if they're like his former federal constituents in Delta-Richmond East, who sent him to Ottawa six times over 18 years, could discover that a non-charismatic, indifferent-speaking, average looking politician has a lot more to offer than the bangles in the standard politician's bag of tricks.Cummins might just appeal to them as the extraordinary ordinary man. Apparently that's been his secret weapon in those six elections. One unabashed supporter says Cummins has a natural gift for driving into the "remote" (from the paved-over corner of the province) and meeting "ordinary" (another uncomfortable word) British Columbians as one of them, not a politician carrying an invisible platform from which he can talk down to the unwashed …He's a University of Western Ontario (B.A.) and UBC (M.A.) grad, worked in the pulp and paper industry in Ontario and the Alberta oil fields, taught in the Northwest Territories and B.C., and been a bona-fide commercial fisherman. He is not, repeat not, a lawyer, and not, repeat not, a corporate-type businessman… was not in the centre of a ring of acolytes, mesmerized by his slick, professionally generated political banalities. That isn't Cummins' style-less style. He'd be indistinguishably talking one-on-one with an invitee, or perhaps a walk-up patron in the crowded room …Voters may go berserk with delight at discovering Gentleman John … then again they may feel far more comfortable with familiar, conventional politicians, the Liberal Christy Clark who inherited a deep hole and hasn't yet dug herself out of it ….… the latest Angus Reid numbers show that the Conservatives under Cummins have attracted 18 per cent of B.C. voters polled (NDP 40 per cent, Liberals 31 per cent, Greens eight per cent, others three per cent if you've forgotten). Obviously a long way from capturing the premier's office, but if an election were held tomorrow a kingmaker / queen-maker role in determining who does …He's moving prudently, declining to run in the Port Moody-Coquitlam by-election, thinks he's better occupied travelling around and growing the party than being the Conservative's top and only banana in the legislature zoo. He's right.
Thank you to all who brought my blood pressure down … and especially to
Trevor Lautens, whoever you are. I like what
you wrote, and what you had to say. You are right! John Cummins and the BC Conservative Party
are, “moving prudently” … and I too believe “he’s right’!
I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops … with the thoughts of one conservative.
No comments:
Post a Comment