Top Ten Conservative MP we need to defeat!

I'd start with five Conservative MPs from Saskatchewan who I hope would not be in the House if we had a fair voting system. Let's say Brad Trost (Saskatoon-Humboldt), Maurice Vellacott (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin), Tom Lukiwski (Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre), Ray Boughen (Palliser), and Randy Hoback (Prince Albert).

Then eight from Alberta. Let's say Rob Anders (Calgary West), Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast), Peter Goldring (Edmonton East), Jim Hillyer (Lethbridge), Kevin Sorenson (Crowfoot), Mike Lake (Edmonton--Mill Woods--Beaumont), Chris Warkentin (Peace River), and Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead).

Then pick your own: 11 from the GTA, five from Eastern Ontario, five from West Central Ontario, four from southwestern Ontario, two from the Lower Mainland, two from the rest of BC, three from Manitoba, and three from New Brunswick.

laine lowe wrote:

Perhaps it would be easier to identify the top ten Conservatives that are the least repugnant or useless or both.

That's easy: the ten least repugnant women. There are so few women in the Conservative caucus, that I'd hate to wish most of them out of parliament.

I find Del Mastro repulsive and the worst kind of politician. In the worst sense of the worst, he is offensive and biggoted. For a man who is against abortions, his support for the death penalty illudes me.

theleftyinvestor wrote:

I would say most who are in cabinet or have been are fair game. Perhaps Diane Ablonczy gets spared for independent thought because she supported funding for Toronto Pride before being quietly shuffled away. I can't think off the top of my head on who else has enough redeeming characteristics to be off the focus list.

Rempel and Leitch both seem to have a "Conservative as winning option" moderate-ish cast to them.

adma wrote:

theleftyinvestor wrote:

I would say most who are in cabinet or have been are fair game. Perhaps Diane Ablonczy gets spared for independent thought because she supported funding for Toronto Pride before being quietly shuffled away. I can't think off the top of my head on who else has enough redeeming characteristics to be off the focus list.

Rempel and Leitch both seem to have a "Conservative as winning option" moderate-ish cast to them.

Both dyed-in-the-wool backroom Conservatives before running. I'd cut some slack to Pat Davidson for speaking out against the overseas sale of asbestos, but I still think her seat of Sarnia should be one of our targets.

infracaninophile wrote:

I respectfully disagree that he is "benign."  He is a very active and virulent anti-abortion activist (too bad he does not show such touching concern for the children who are already here -- you know, like poor kids, foster children, kids in Attawapiskat --- seems they only merit action while in utero).

Sweet is also aggressively anti-feminist and believes women have no place in leadership. And on the lazy side, except for attending prayer breakfasts with the PM, it's hard to pin down anything he has done for the riding.

asma, I'm interested in what you say about the riding boundary proposed changes. There could be room for improvement here. Provincially, the PC candidate sank like a stone even in my very conservative part of the riding.

If you go back in the thread, you'll notice that the "benign enough" comment referred to my immediate-previous-post reference to Mike Chong, not my earlier reference to David Sweet.  (You're forgiven.)

As for Sweet, the changes could actually work to his benefit if it gave him a more strictly rural/exurban seat (it isn't as if he'd go on a suicide mission by opting for wherever the Dundas/Westdale chips will fall)

Here are some Conservative MPs I would like to see shown the door:

Merv Tweed (Brandon-Souris)

Candace Hoeppner (Portage-Lisgar)

James Bezan (Selkirk-Interlake)

Shelly Glover (St. Boniface)

Robert Sopuck (Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette)

Vic Toews (Provencher)

Lawrence Toet (Elmwood-Transcona)

Steven Fletcher (Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia)

Garry Breikreuz (Yorkton-Melville)

Gerry Ritz (Battlefords-Lloydminister)

theleftyinvestor wrote:

       Cheryl Gallant     Conservative     Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke

Funny how except in that token checklist of Con-caucus women, she hasn't been a talking point in this thread yet...

theleftyinvestor wrote:

[...]

I would say most who are in cabinet or have been are fair game. Perhaps Diane Ablonczy gets spared for independent thought because she supported funding for Toronto Pride before being quietly shuffled away. I can't think off the top of my head on who else has enough redeeming characteristics to be off the focus list.

Ah yes, Diane Ablonczy - whose most notable contribution to Canadian political life was her villification of Maher Arar in 2002:

Quote:

Mr. Speaker, it is time the Liberals told the truth: that their system of screening and security checks is pathetic. Arar was given dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship by the government. It did not pick up on his terrorist links and the U.S. had to clue it in.

How is it that the U.S. could uncover this man's background so quickly when the government's screening system failed to find his al-Qaeda links?
..
Mr. Speaker, the government needs to take responsibility for what it is doing to protect Canadian security. The fact is that these Liberals were asleep at the switch. Arar was not properly checked. Instead, the government ran around chastising the U.S. for sending Arar back to Syria, where he is also a citizen. Why is it that the Liberal security system is so weak here that they overlook vital information that the U.S. picked up on a routine check?

Of course one would need to find a recording of her words as they were delivered to get the full impact. I had the opportunity to discuss it on the politicial panel on the local CBC morning program the day after she made her remarks, and I stand by my description that she sounded like some frenzied canine baying after a small animal that she had blooded, but not quite managed to kill. I suspect that the person leading a lynch mob sounds very similar.

Despite Mr. Arar having been cleared of any possible wrong doing, Ms. Ablonczy has, to the best of my knowledge (and I have searched extensively) never apologized for her words -- something that, given her role as Reform spokesperson [head witch hunter] on the file, is owed to Mr. Arar -- that she has never accepted responsibility and recanted is part of the reason I find her a truly despicable human being.

As to her role on "providing" funding for Toronto Pride... I prefer to think of it as her not blocking the funding as opposed to actively championing it. And no, it does not outweigh her disgusting performance back in '02.

Personally, I would be overjoyed not to see her in Parliament ever again.