Right-wing agenda dominates Conservative policy convention
Conservative faithful have elbowed Canada's governing party back to the right, just a month after Stephen Harper won another minority mandate with a campaign that hugged the political centre.
Some 2,000 delegates at the first Tory policy convention since March 2005 adopted resolutions Saturday that would strip human-rights tribunals of some powers and create new charges for the killing of unborn children.
They also strongly endorsed tough-on-crime measures, income splitting for couples with young children and a motion rewriting the party's position on equal pay for work of equal value.
The resolutions are not binding on Prime Minister Harper or his Conservative caucus, but they allowed party faithful to reaffirm their right-of-centre policy leanings….
A resolution encouraging provinces to experiment with private health care was defeated on the argument that privatization is happening anyway and the motion would simply provide ammunition to the Conservatives' political foes.
But other hot-button issues found wide support on the convention floor.
One policy would take away investigative and adjudication powers from the Canadian Human Rights Commission and tribunal for complaints of hate-mongering.
"This tribunal is a direct threat to our freedom of speech," the sponsoring delegate said to applause.
Edmonton MP Laurie Hawn supported the motion, saying "we already have hate laws" and the tribunals "punish individuals for expressing legitimate - even if they're controversial - views."
The resolution was adopted virtually unanimously.
Delegates had more divergent views on a proposal that would add charges to anyone who kills or injures a fetus during the commission of a crime against a pregnant mother.
The sponsoring delegate from Saskatchewan said the motion "recognized the unborn child as a victim of crime in the event of deliberate injury or death to the mother and child."
"You are essentially saying that the unborn child is a person," responded the first delegate to speak against the motion, drawing widespread cheers from supporters of the resolution.
Those cheers quickly turned to jeers as the woman from Saint John, N.B., continued in defence of abortion rights: "Therefore you are re-opening the way to that slippery path that will take away a woman's right to choose. This is the thin edge of the wedge."
- Source
Bastards.
Are they allowed to take pictures of protestors? I thought you had to have permission to take a picture.
How about bringing your own camera, and take pictures right back at the them?
I don't know if there are any laws on taking pictures of people at protests. The cops do it all the time
I think that would be an excellent idea, and I really do think that sometimes we need more photographers at protests just to be a little more safe and have photographic evidence in case shit happens. I don't have a camera right now though, but here's hoping Santa will bring me one. He made my bus come late today because streets were closed for the parade, so he owes me
You better watch out you better not picket cause I'm telling you why, Steven Harper's in townnnnnnnnnn.
Our kids live together and play together in their communities, let's have them learn together too!
Obviously several people do Stock, especially those of us whom they target, like women.
___________________________________________________________ "watching the tide roll away"
Déjà vu.
At the risk of going off topic, I cannot resist the urge to make the smug observation that it sounds like a certain premier I know
I remember back in the 1980s when Bill Bennett was Social Credit Premier of BC - there was a BC Socred convention that passed a resolution that demanded that all rapists be castrated AND circumcised (wtf??). I don't recall the BC government then starting to castrate anyone.
Conservative conventions have aboslutely no binding power over party policy - the whole event is a joke.
I was at that convention as a delegate. I did go watch the rally, found it somewhat interesting and quite meaningless. 50 -60 people peacefully expressing their freedom of speech, you have to love this country for giving everyone this right. Someone took a picture of me so I took one back of him. Not sure what he and I will do with them, most likely delete them.
It was my first convention and I found it rather invigorating. Lots of positive energy, no one demeaning the leaders of the other parties or those that voted for the other parties and many people from all walks of life (private, public, union, non-union, small business, large business, farmers, educators, etc). I was quite surprized how young the delegates were. Thought it would be only the blue hairs.
I would like to go to the NDP convention, as an observer and compare the differences and likenesses.
Cheers
Nobody's convention really has binding power over what their MPs do in Parliament - and for the good reason that MPs are responsible for more than just party members.
Glorified rally.
But man, there are some troglodytes out there
Jim Prentice’s awful copyright legislation appears to be as unpopular with the grassroots of the right as it is with the left wing.
http://www.stephentaylor.ca/2008/11/interview-with-industry-minister-ton...Some interesting points that were presented at the convention.
Conservatives
The party that formed Canada in 1867.
The party that gave us the bill of rights
The party that gave the vote to women and aboriginals
1st party to elect Chinese-Canadian, Black-Canadian, Japanese-Canadian, Muslim-Canadian and Hindu-Canadian as MP's.
1st party to appoint a woman cabinet minister and aboriginal to the senate.
Just observations.
It's not like the cons were ahead of their time but were laggards in relation to other countries. But the tipping point was this:
Our kids live together and play together in their communities, let's have them learn together too!
True history;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Confederation
And here, I will note it was the Progressive Conservatives that all you CONservatives hate, which had the first Asian Canadian, African Canadian not your hateful party. The first Indo Canadian elected to official office in Canada was Moe Sahota for the NDP in BC, just as Rosemary Brown was the first black woman elected to official office as an NDP,
Rahim Jaffer was elected as a Reform party member, and was not elected as a CONservative.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_candidates_in_Canadian_elections
Marchand, who became the first FN's person elected as MP and appointed to the senate, was also a PROGRESSIVE Conservative. You know the party that was destroyed because the Reformers could not stand the "progessive" parts of it?
Your party is in NO WAY related to one of the parties that was a founding party of Canada. Not that that means shit anyway. And please do educate yourself, before you start espousing nonsense like you have. Oh, and stop being naive/gullible just because you are told something does not mean it is true, nor accurate.
___________________________________________________________ "watching the tide roll away"
Wrong. Len Marchand was elected as a Liberal, in the "Trudeaumania" wave of '68.
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Our Demands Most Moderate are/ We Only Want The World! -James Connolly
Your correct, Marchand was elected Liberal and was the first Aboriginal to be elected, and it was James Gladstone who was appointed to the Senate by Progressive Conservative PM Diefenbaker 2 years before FN's finally acheived the right to vote in 1960. Bad me forgetting Canadian history like that.
___________________________________________________________ "watching the tide roll away"
I go to many NDP Conventions, usually the "observer fee" to attend as a non-delegate is in the range of $50.
At the Conservative Convention, the "observer fee" was about $1000.
This fee is counted as a donation to the party. Since the annual donation limit is just over $1000, it wouldn't even be allowed for someone who has donated to other parties to pay that fee and attend.
The delegate fee was also very high, hundreds of dollars. The fees to attend this convention were the highest I have seen of any convention of any party.
Sorry you cannot claim the current CONservative party as being that of Diefenbaker's, full stop. No more than the BC Libs can call themselves liberals. And am simply not going to bother with citing evidence it is everywhere and has been since reformatory days.
___________________________________________________________ "watching the tide roll away"