The Quadra Equation
Given what happened in the Quebec by-elections, one imagines people will be paying close attention to round two, expected this fall. One of those by-elections will be in Vancouver Quadra, Stephen Owen's old riding and a Liberal riding since a man by the name of Turner won it in 1984.
The Tories held their nomination meeting in Quadra last night and a funny thing happened. The hand picked candidate of John Reynolds, Mary McNeil went down in defeat. Reynolds had been touting the BC Cancer Foundation Chairman as a "star" all summer and had invested a lot of political capital to get her to run. And for those keeping track, this is not the first star recruit of Reynolds to go down in flames during a nominating meeting...so one imagines big names will think twice about being lured onside in the foreseeable future.
As for Quadra, the Tories will be puting up UBC professor Deborah Meredith, while the Liberals will put up former provincial Environment Minister Joyce Murray. The likely bronze medalist will be Rebecca Coad, of the NDP.
The Tories held their nomination meeting in Quadra last night and a funny thing happened. The hand picked candidate of John Reynolds, Mary McNeil went down in defeat. Reynolds had been touting the BC Cancer Foundation Chairman as a "star" all summer and had invested a lot of political capital to get her to run. And for those keeping track, this is not the first star recruit of Reynolds to go down in flames during a nominating meeting...so one imagines big names will think twice about being lured onside in the foreseeable future.
As for Quadra, the Tories will be puting up UBC professor Deborah Meredith, while the Liberals will put up former provincial Environment Minister Joyce Murray. The likely bronze medalist will be Rebecca Coad, of the NDP.
Labels: Vancouver Quadra
posted by calgarygrit at
8:47 p.m.
14 Comments:
democracy in action is a foreign concept to Liberals...
Dion should go back to intro poli sci for a refresher.
By
conservativehabsfan, at 9:55 p.m.
I definitely will be interested in watching this race, you are absolutely correct on that.
I don't know much about these candidates, really. But I wouldn't support a person John Reynolds hand-picked, either...
By
Jacques Beau Vert, at 10:02 p.m.
I'm pretty sure Joyce Murray won a competitive nomination here as well.
By
Dan McKenzie, at 10:04 p.m.
And Dan Grice for the Greens.
By
CT, at 10:32 p.m.
Democracy in action like delaying the nomination meeting to give McNeil a chance to sell more memberships? That kind of democracy?
By
Jeff, at 11:56 p.m.
democracy in action like in edmonton sherwood park? talk to their riding association about how a two time loser candidate got parachuted in there. watch for a strong independent to go against the con parachutee there.
By
kenlister1, at 12:52 a.m.
Democratic action like in New Westminster-Coquitlam, where the PMO pushed for a newly-recruited liberal member of the Korean community with no ties to the party, over 2 candidates who had strong backing from the executive? That kind of democracy?
By
burlivespipe, at 2:57 a.m.
I guess the real stress tester for all successful CON candidates is how well they could keep stone-cold silent and run a maze to avoid the press and community meetings, except when presenting the 'large novelty cheque' along with the potted fern, er minister responsible.
By
burlivespipe, at 2:59 a.m.
Better to be voted down in the party meeting than at the ballot box -- if Outremont had followed a similar procedure, it's possible that it would still be a Liberal seat.
Of course, Vancouver Quadra should be an easy Liberal hold.
By
Ben (The Tiger in Exile), at 9:09 a.m.
As a Vancouverite, i would never say anything here is a lock. Especially when a veteran, respected MP steps down. Hedy Fry, God love her, has an incredible hold on VanCentre that would be hard to top -- it once was a lock for Pat Carney, who passed it down to Kim Campbell.
Bill Clark, dull but dutiful, held the seat for over 10 years for the PCs before Quadra got sentimental and put John Turner in to lead the opposition. Maybe Van South, from Dhaliwal to Dosanjh, is fairly safe, since the demographics have changed so much from the John Fraser days.
Joyce Murray is a hard campaigner and her BC Lib ties won't hurt her as much there as they did in New West.
I agree it will be a crucial battle to watch, and I'm wondering if the CONs 'star candidate' will be able to do more than read the song sheet (13 years to get it done, blah blah, Canada is back, yah yah, Our military's got a new gun, boop boop de doop)...
By
burlivespipe, at 7:26 p.m.
Good points, all, except this: we're told (in fact, this very post says) that the Conservative star candidate crashed and burned at the nomination meeting.
This one is from the grassroots. (A law prof isn't bad, mind you...)
By
Ben (The Tiger in Exile), at 8:17 p.m.
My original point was that no matter who was backing the supposed star candidate the vote still went ahead.
Unlike Dion stuffing candidates into ridings and rejecting established hopefuls. Kind of like Marc Garneau getting shot down by Mr. Democracy Stephane Dion.
A real vote actually took place and unlike dearly departed Gary Merasty no votes were purchased with free TVs...
By
conservativehabsfan, at 8:48 p.m.
...plenty of votes were bought for the price of an Income Trust promise, tho...
Since you're throwing around slander. CONs mastered the technique of buying votes before Canada celebrated its first birthday, you know.
By
burlivespipe, at 12:27 a.m.
I think Vancouver-Quadra is now a lock for the Liberals. Today politics seems to be too much split along rural/urban lines so I suspect the Tories will get locked out of Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver again and any gains they make will be in the suburbs. Stephen Owen was quite popular, but the size of his victories were too large to overcome. Never mind this riding does include Kitsilano and UBC which are pretty liberal areas, so the Tories would need to win Kerrisdale, Shaughnessy and the Marine Drive area by as much as they lose Kitsilano and UBC and that will not happen. Last election they only won 8 polls out of over 200 and did not get above 40% in any section of the riding, whereas the Tories got above 40% in Rosedale in Toronto Centre and several other sections of ridings in Toronto. They only failed to win a riding in Toronto, since their pockets are scattered and thankfully we don't gerrymander ridings like they do in the US.
By
Monkey Loves to Fight, at 7:54 p.m.
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