The Battle for Edmonton Sherwood PArk could go 5 ways:
FRom
The Edmonton Journal :
'What happened here is not democracy'
Bitter battle over nomination in Edmonton-Sherwood Park riding leaves conservatives fighting among themselves
Darcy Henton, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Monday, September 15, 2008
EDMONTON - Voters in Edmonton-Sherwood Park will have their pick of two conservatives this election as a result of an acrimonious split in the Tory riding association's board over former Mill Woods candidate Tim Uppal's nomination victory.
The majority of board members quit after Uppal soundly defeated local municipal councillor Jacquie Fenske for the Conservative nomination, and his team took control of the board.
Many of those who left are now backing independent James Ford, who vows to give them a conservative voice in Ottawa.
"We just got blindsided," complains former board member John Stokalko. "We didn't have a chance to pick a person.
"It was all decided before we had a chance to do anything."
Defecting board members claim Uppal's team took the riding by stealth with the aid of party officials after longtime MP Ken Epp announced his retirement.
Some believe the party hierarchy encouraged Uppal to run in Edmonton-Sherwood Park rather than challenge Mike Lake, who beat Uppal for the Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont Tory nomination and was elected MP in 2006.
"Too many things were done to keep us in the dark and immobilized," Stokalko says.
Former board members say Uppal didn't file his nomination papers until the last minute and stacked the nomination meeting in north Edmonton to catch Fenske, who appeared on the verge of being acclaimed, by surprise.
"This is not right," says longstanding Tory Bill Noonan. "The party cannot run roughshod over the people. What happened here is not democracy. It's what happens in a banana republic."
Noonan says he wrote a letter of complaint to senior party officials, but William McBeath, a Conservative regional organizer, says the party believes the nomination was fair and he is not aware of anyone complaining about it.
"We believe we have an outstanding candidate in Tim Uppal ... . I am very disappointed Mr. Ford has taken this course of action."
Uppal suggests the complaints are sour grapes, saying he won the nomination fairly.
"I worked really hard to sell memberships and get (supporters) out," he says.
"Jacquie got 250-some people out and I got more. That's the game in a nomination."
Uppal says he won by more than twice the votes of his rival.
Although he was invited to work in the Tories' Ottawa headquarters during the last election and has had six cabinet ministers visit the riding since winning the nomination in 2006, he denies senior party officials helped him secure the position. He sought the nomination on his own accord after learning Epp was retiring, he says.
"I was already building a house out here before that even started."
The party set the nomination date and he decided to take part after talking to his team and "some Conservatives out here," Uppal says.
"It was a whirlwind for a week," he says. "It was a seven-day campaign to sell memberships. I personally went and knocked on doors."
He suffered a bitter defeat of his own when Lake won the nomination in the Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont riding, Uppal says.
He had run unsuccessfully twice previously against Liberal David Kilgour, so he knows well the disappointment of losing, he says.
Although Uppal was building a house in Sherwood Park when the nomination was held in 2006, he didn't live there, McBeath says.
He moved in the following year, McBeath says.
Noonan believes the party took advantage of a weak local board to put in place its favoured candidate from outside the constituency. "I don't know how many other places they have done this, but I am working like hell for Jim to teach the S.O.B.s a lesson. It's as simple as that. If this is what the Conservative party has become, they should go down into Central America."
He doesn't know if Prime Minister Stephen Harper endorsed the move, but says he and several other board members received a taped phone call from Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day endorsing Uppal before the nomination vote.
Former board member Donna Clarkson says eight of 12 board members quit or left over the issue.
"For these people to come in and tell us how to run our board -- we just had enough of it."
Ford, who assisted Fenske in her nomination bid, says association members weren't given sufficient notice of the nomination meeting. Although most members reside in Sherwood Park and Fort Saskatchewan, the vote was held in north Edmonton, he says.
"The nomination process was flawed," he says. "It wasn't illegal, but it was immoral."
Fenske was devastated, but recognized there was nothing she could do, Ford says.
"I decided I wanted to run and try to make something good of this," Ford says. "I want to do something for my community, but more importantly, I want to make sure that nominations are from the grassroots, bottom up and not from the top down. Dammit, we have to stop doing this. It's our community and it's our selection process."
Ford wants to introduce a bill requiring that people who vote to nominate federal candidates be Canadian citizens.
dhenton@thejournal.canwest.com
Well Darcy a perfect example of a parachute candidate
And a comment from Rick Szostak, Liberal Candidate in Edmonton Sherwood PArk:
Thoughts on the Conservative nomination in Sherwood Park:
I do not wish to insert myself into internal Conservative Party politics. However, since this is an issue for many voters in Edmonton-Sherwood Park, I would make the following points:
Government Ministers and other party officials should not actively take sides in a local nomination contest. If this happened in Edmonton-Sherwood Park, then it is symbolic of how this Conservative Party does not practice what it preaches: it speaks of grassroots democracy but apparently violates this principle when convenient.
If the voters of Edmonton Sherwood Park want to send the Conservative Party a lesson -- about the controversy surrounding alleged interference in the nomination process or broader concerns that the party takes Alberta for granted while pouring billions of dollars of pork barrel spending into ridings they want to win in Central Canada -- they need to vote Liberal. With all due respect to Jim Ford, voting for an independent who plans to join the Conservative caucus is like punishing a child by sending them to their room with a big ice cream cone. They will not get the message.
In any case, Stephen Harper shows little respect for his MPs. He does not listen to them or allow them to speak their minds. Either Conservative candidate will end up as little more than a background prop for the leader's photo opportunities. If the voters want an MP that will speak up for Edmonton, Sherwood Park, and Fort Saskatchewan, they need to vote for a party whose leader values open discourse, both within and across parties. Stephane Dion has made it clear that he wants Albertans in his cabinet. The Liberal Party sees northern Alberta as a place where they can win new seats in their quest for a majority government. Liberal MPs from Alberta will be very influential at the national level.
By the way, if voters are curious, I was unopposed in my bid for the Liberal nomination and have the wholehearted support of the Liberal constituency association and past Liberal candidates in this constituency.