OfficiallyScrewed.com

Friday started off with Breakfast in the main dining hall where I spent a few minutes talking to Lois Brown (Newmarket-Aurora). I have family in her riding who used to own a now closed restaurant that was a mainstay there for decades and Mrs. Brown knew them well. This was also the first time I ran into Dr. Roy. He introduced me to the Atheist Conservative and pointed out the Christian Conservative, two other bloggers who were at the Convention.

After breakfast I made my way to the first half of the Social and Democratic Sessions where the two key motions that were debated were P-203 (Human Rights Commission Jurisdiction) and P-207 (Protecting Pregnant Woman). Human Rights Commissions abuse of section 13 may be one the government wants to manage like a surgeon with a scalpel to minimize the media spin on Human Rights, but the grassroots want to beat it with 1000 baseball bats and it was clearly favoured to pass. P-207 being such a special interest subject meant the masses in support of it were there to make sure it went on to Plenary.

The second half of the morning sessions, I shifted over to the Constitutional room where C-107 and C-117 were being debated heavily. These affect how EDA’s with less than 100 members will be represented in votes for leadership as well as the number of delegates. Being hot subjects for the old PC crowd and many Quebec ridings, this one was also defended well and in a split decision went on to Plenary. I was pleased in my selections of rooms to attend as it let me observe some of the very hot topics.

Lunch was lunch.

The afternoon had me floating around a bit and helping a friend promote himself for National Council. While helping him I managed to talk to Michael Chong, Marjory LeBreton, Jim Prentice, and several other dignitaries.

Dinner was not just dinner. We discovered a beer brewed locally called Fort Garry Dark. This was truly a treasure that I found myself asking bartenders about the rest of the weekend. It’s brewed locally without preservatives so is only found in some key places that move enough beer to not let it get stale which explains the freshness that made it so good. Apparently, the brewery that makes Kokanee recently purchased the Fort Garry brewery and is starting to ship it out to other areas of the country. In any case, I was very impressed, and I know my beer.

Post dinner had us attending the Canadian Indian Federation’s room where I was very impressed with the turnout as well as the way the room was managed. Being very supportive of Canadian-Indian relations, I was pleased to discuss the positive aspects of working in conjunction with such a large democracy in an area of the world where we can use some friends.

Thursday afternoon started with lunch at the Elephant and Castle. One of my riding delegates has known Rahim Jaffer for several years and with a second one having worked for him, we took a few minutes to congratulate him on his recent marriage.

While waiting for our food, BT co-founder Stephen Taylor passed by and we chatted for a few. I may be way off base here, but I got the feeling that he is more comfortable in his own skin these days compared to when I first met him at the Manning Centre sessions in Ottawa earlier this year. This is good news because he has a lot to give the movement and will be even more effective when sharing his ideas and passion for the “E” aspects of campaigning.

After a late lunch, things slowed a bit for me until the prep for the keynote speech.

I made my way to the grand ballroom for the keynote speech and as I sat there reading messages on my blackberry, I quickly discovered that with all the different flights in, and all the different hotels, and all the different floors and all the different convention rooms, (and even all the different sections within the grand ballrooms), that the most popular message being texted/emailed to and from friends was “Where r u?”.

The keynote speech was great and pumped everyone up and what I gleened from the various comments made were the following:

a) The Party is working hard to rebrand itself with the phrase “The Conservative Party is Canada’s Party.” This quick, easy to remember phrase, will appear more and more and help to overtake the believe that the Liberals are “Canada’s natural ruling party”.

b) The PM made comments about not being stuck in idealogy and dogma. Translated, to me this meant that the party will be going into deficit and possibly even bailing out specific sectors, which may include the auto sector.

and

c) Laureen Harper truly is the Party’s secret weapon. Having met her on several occasions, I can truly say she is a warm and charming lady with a down to earth attitude that may be more effective at winning people over than any policy that the party will move on.

After the speech, we made our way to Jim Flaherty’s suite for a glass of wine and a toast to the recent election win and after that we slipped down two floors to Peter Van Loan’s party. As I arrived I got a chance to tell him that I would be disappointed that he would not be fielding the bulk of the questions in QP because anyone who can smoothly call Liberal Mark Holland a Nancy Drew deserves credit. His new role as Minister of Public Safety was hyped with some posters with his top “political” safety tips and number 5 was the most humourous. Tip for Garth Turner: When crossing the street, look both ways and walk. But if you are crossing the floor, you must run!!

That wrapped my Thursday.

I was asked by an Ontario National Council candidate to represent him at the draw for speaking order and table assignments which was at 11 am this morning. Ironically, the room it was to be held in was “behind” the security barriers in place (little people in yellow shirts with no guns were considered security hehe) and registration for your badge was not taking place until noon. So I sauntered past three yellow shirted “barriers” until finally one asked me for ID.

I promptly got out my driver’s license and my Conservative Party membership card to show him and he told me that anyone could have printed the membership card off and he would need to see further proof. At this point I pulled out my completely useless “Conservative Party Sustaining Donor Card” (**see note at end as to why I have this card with me if it is completely useless), and he said, that’s fine go ahead.

I then managed to squeeze into the long hallway with meeting rooms everywhere and made my way to the empty room where the lottery was to be held. At that point I got jumped by another yellow shirted “barrier” who dragged me out the other end of the hallway which, luckily, was where registration was. As I was there well before the registration started yet had a reason, they were nice enough to let me register. I ran into Mike Donison who introduced himself. He seems like a very pleasant man.

Following registration, I returned to my hotel room to drop off my kit and went back for the lottery. My friend running for National Council got what I think is the a pretty good table location and the second best speaking spot for Ontario candidates.

Following that I spent some time in the Delta lobby talking to Minister O’Connor, some of my fellow delegates, and I was lucky enough to get some time to talk to and congratulate Minister Tony Clement (Parry Sound – Muskoka) on his victory and I got to meet Winnipeg hometown boy Rod Bruinooge (Winnipeg South) as well as Chris Warkentin (Peace River). While waiting around security showed up and Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife came in, shook a few hands and headed up to their suite.

I’ll be heading out to lunch soon and tracking down some bloggers. Dr. Roy has left me a message so we will likely hook up for a beer at somepoint today.

** Note on sustaining donor card. I just got it in the mail. It is a credit card quality piece of plastic with my name imprinted on it. The card means absolutely nothing to anyone other than to indicate that for 2008, I gave the party some cash. I get one of these beautiful cards annually and usually I promptly toss them into the circular filing cabinet.

Ironically, my more valuable membership card that I have had for several years now is on a flimsy piece of plasticized paper. My information is printed on this card with black inkjet or laserjet and is fading quickly yet I am not slated to get a new card for 2 or more years. Then again, a membership is $10 and I donate far more than that annually so perhaps from a cost perspective things line up a bit better. Still, it would be nice to have a proper membership card in my wallet.

My travel to Winnipeg, as expected, was on a plane full of people I recognized. From seeing Martin Stringer of CPAC checking in, to seeing Walter Robinson in the line up to get on the flight, to having Joël-Denis Bellavance ov La Presse sitting a couple of seats back, to having MP’s Pierre Poilievre and Guy Lauzon walk on the plane just before take off, the flight was fun. I had two of my fellow EDA delegates on board and I had another delegate from Nepean-Carleton whom I know sitting beside me so we gabbed politics the whole flight. My day was starting off on the right foot but would only get better.

Wednesday night is probably going to be the climax of my convention and it hadn’t even started. I ran into an old acquaintance in the lobby of the Delta and while talking we ran into Pierre Poilievre (Nepean-Carleton). Not having dinner plans, Pierre graciously asked me to join him and a few friends for dinner. Little did I know it would be MP’s Jay Hill (Prince George – Peace River), Tim Uppal (Edmonton – Sherwood Park), Brian Jean (Fort McMurray – Athabasca). It was nice to get a call from my MP, Gordon O’Connor (Carleton – Mississippi Mills) and be able to invite him to join us as well. We were also joined by candidate Rob Zandee (BC Southern Interior).

A few other guests turned up to say hi while we dined. Ian and Vida Brodie, Diane Ablonczy, John Baird and a couple of friends from the Nepean-Carleton EDA.

I have to say it was one humour filled evening. Maybe it was the beer, but I was in stitches most of the time with good fun camaraderie, light-hearted ribbing of each other and heavier ribbing of the Liberals.

I hope the fun continues at this pace.

I will let my letter to the station speak for itself.

On Saturday September 6th in the mid afternoon, I heard the DJ (not sure who) talking about a racist in the USA who had a black baby doll hanging from a cross in front of his house.

He went on to talk about how this person was fighting in court to be able to continue to display this.

All this was fine and I agree with the DJ that the hanging doll was clearly a racist and disgusting display.

What I found very distasteful and upsetting was his remarks that this racist American was a frontrunner for the Republican vice presidential nomination but wasn’t good looking enough.

I know it was a joke, and the comments about him not being good looking enough may be considered male chauvinistic and I would not be writing if that was the joke. But it wasn’t. His comment about Republicans (and subtly by extension conservative minded people) as being racist or as considering a racist to be in a top position in their political hierarchy was extremely offensive.

I think this DJ owes all conservative minded people an apology.

Regards,