I don't want to claim that it was the blogswarm that finally got the media interested in the Conservatives unelected representative scam, but it's nice to think that we had some sort of effect. Regardless, as many blogs have pointed out, the media is on it now and the Conservatives are desperately backpedalling.
Government officials have distanced themselves from [Cariboo-Prince George MP Dick] Harris's unofficial appointment of Smith as the riding representative in Ottawa."He just kind of did that himself,'' government spokesman Ryan Sparrow said of Harris's move.
"(Smith) is the Conservative candidate in the next election. That's her only official capacity.''
Sparrow was unequivocal when asked whom local residents should contact for federal help: "They should contact their local member of Parliament ... Ms. Smith is working hard to be that person after the next election, but for now the riding is held by a New Democrat.''
I would venture that Mr. Sparrow is being factually creative by pinning all this on Harris. In Stephen Harper's micromanaged world, NO ONE goes to the media with something like this without authorization. In fact, it looks very much like this was a broadly orchestrated campaign to target vulnerable NDP ridings in preparation for the next election. Harris has been made the fall guy on this by the PMO, and he is now taking a brutal drubbing in The Prince George Citizen, his riding's largest newspaper, where the targeted NDP MP, Nathan Cullen, is venting his justified outrage.
Controversy over appointment of Houston Mayor Sharon Smith as the Conservatives' "go-to" person in Skeena-Bulkley Valley is continuing as Nathan Cullen, the NDP MLA for the riding said Wednesday he's close to submitting a complaint to the federal ethics commissioner.[snip]
Cullen said the move is unethical because Harris is using his office to promote the ambitions of a private citizen and because it contravenes the spirit of democracy.
"It's not just impugning my reputation, politicians do that all the time," he said. "But it's trying to confuse the voters in a free democracy as to who actually represents them."
"He's also suggesting that the public service, which Canadians pay for, is somehow working harder or working at all for just the Conservatives. Public servants do not work for the Conservative Party, the government does not belong to the Conservative Party, it belongs to Canadians."
Cullen said there's been an outpouring of support for him on the issue, including comments from residents in Harris' constituency.
"We've had an amazing reaction from right across British Columbia to this," he said. "Just absolute anger at what Mr. Harris has been up to."
His submission to the ethics commissioner will include letter's he's received from outraged voters and he said the number of calls from Harris' riding about the issue have equalled the number from his own constituency.
"No one likes being bullied or tricked into voting differently than they want to," Cullen said.
Today's editorial in the paper is just as hard on Harris, and does a nice job of deducing the real intent of the Conservative's plan.
A Tory plan devised ostensibly to give people in the federal riding of Skeena-Bulkley Valley a conduit to the government is in reality a blatant attempt to discredit a sitting member of Parliament.And so the campaign begins immediately west of Prince George.
Cariboo-Prince George Conservative MP Dick Harris last week named Houston mayor Sharon Smith the riding's "go-to" person for the federal government.
The ploy is designed to encourage constituents of Skeena-Bulkley Valley to contact Smith if they want a federal matter looked into.
Since confederation, the job of looking after constituents' concerns has been the responsibility of their elected MP. In Skeena-Bulkley Valley's case it's the NDP's Nathan Cullen, currently serving his second term.
It is not a coincidence that Smith, as the Tories' new liaison, has already been selected the Tory candidate to challenge Cullen in the next federal election.
The motive behind the move is to imply to voters that Cullen hasn't been doing his job on their behalf.
As a first-time candidate in 2004 Cullen narrowly defeated Conservative incumbent Andy Burton. Less than two years later Cullen easily won re-election with almost 50 per cent of the vote. This doesn't sound like a riding whose constituents were dissatisfied with having an opposition MP as Canadians elected first a Liberal government, then a Conservative one.
Harris told CBC Radio's Daybreak North last week that MPs outside the governing party have a difficult time getting the ear of government. "We think that the folks in the Skeena-Bulkley Valley riding should have access to government . . . we are finding that opposition MPs -- particularly those from the fourth party like the NDP party -- simply don't have the access to the ministers or to the government that allows them to get things done for their ridings," Harris said.
Apparently this didn't apply to Harris when he was an opposition MP for 13 years.
On the other hand, it could be an admission by the Tories that they ignore ridings not represented by one of their own.
The Tories appointed a similar go-to person in Vancouver Island North, which is held by the NDP's Catherine Bell. That riding has traditionally gone Conservative/Reform and is one the Tories would love to have back as they set their sights on winning a majority.
The same goes for Skeena-Bulkley Valley.
And there's the true intention behind the move.
Appointing Smith now is designed to develop name recognition in the vast reaches of the riding outside Houston well ahead of an election call.
It's politics as usual and has very little to do with giving constituents in the wrong ridings a voice at the government table.
There's something undemocratic in appointing someone to do the job of an elected MP.
Harris is taking it on the chin, and his charming colleagues are happy to let him be the lightning rod for the understandable disgust the plan is generating. Good. He deserves censure for being stupid enough to agree to be the frontman for such an objectionable endeavour, but it important to keep hitting on the point that this was a Conservative Party plan, not just the work of one rogue MP. This mess illustrates not just the foolishness of Harris, but the Conservative Party's intent to win at any cost, no matter how sleazy their tactics have to be. (Gee, remind you of anyone?)
Say, here's a pleasant thought: what if people were so peeved with Harris that he ended up losing his seat in the next election? It's not really a danger given his margin of victory in the last election, but if I were his opponent, I would ensure that everyone knew about Harris's central role in this seedy and undemocratic scheme.
Cool that this is getting out. Glad I copied Mike Duffy at CTV on the email I sent to Harper, Harris, Cullen and McGuinty (my MP here in Ottawa).
By the way, the response I got from the PMO was basically... 'Thank you for wasting your time writing to us. Don't hold your breath waiting for a response.' My (Liberal) MP's staffer responded and basically said 'If the PMO responds, please forward it to us... so we could die of shock.'
Grrrrr.
What about the hints we had that this was going on in other ridings as well? The Bevington/Bell situation in Yellowknife, which you first wrote about, Tim, and a similar situation in Vancouver North, which I see mentioned in Dr Dawg's round-up?
It's great to see the backpedalling, and also important that CTV would call it that, no matter how Mr Sparrow tries to spin it.
i started the event by placing a letter to the editor in the smithers interior news newspaper here is the copy of said letter check the galloping beaver blogging frank farrell, dick harris ,and nathan cullen to find the real grass roots disent. In the meantime here is a rebuttal to be posted next I would like to provide something of a rebuttal to the continued content of the Interior news as it relates to the ongoing "liason to the federal government" affair.
There are a few points that need futher clarification, most notably the continued denial or downplaying of wrongdoing as it relates MP Harris, Candidate Smith, the Conservative party, and for that matter this very publication.
With regards to candidate Smith she was quoted as saying that it " the appointment was a good opportunity to have direct government to constituency-to-government communication" Once again I beg to ask shouldn't the conservative government be engaging in conversation with our freely elected and re-elected MP Nathan Cullen, as he is our legitimised representative of the constituency.
Whether you supported him or not in previous election the fact that is that this "appointment" is a smack in the face to all in the riding, by implying that your views is so terrible that we had to circumvent the democratic process to make it more right.
Invariably, this is one reason why I disagree with the conservative agenda. On the one hand they harp on such issues as senate reform yet they orchestrate this body blow to democracy, in a mid-summer setting meant to be slipped through the cracks without proper scrutiny.Moreover, MP. Harris Prime Minister Harper and a cadre of his government members were members of a Reform Party that proposed a wide range of democratic reforms like a Triple E senate. Yet in this instance they can bypass those ideals in order to appoint Smith to a bogus position meant to offer Harper a greater chance at attaining another seat towards a future proposed Majority government. This conservative agenda is simular to those in other parts of the country where they have been accused of by reneging provinces on such areas as an agreement of no equalization clawback on offshore oil revenues. Even one conservative premier has vigorously been critical of Harper in this matter.
With regard to this newspaper my qualm is that to this very day the braintrust has failed to accept that the appointment was wrong. The Editor claims that there was no murmer regarding this event. I wrote a letter to the editor which was published in the following week crtical of the coverage and the appointment.Apparently, a voter subscriber and admittedly supporter of MP Cullen, doesn't count in his math.
In final, the paper and the conservatives are of a simular mindset in this occurrance. Make a half truth, or create anoint and publish a ficticional appointment. When held in closer examination fold faster than superman on laundry day, and change the subject in order to fit the " agenda" I firmly believe that the people of the region can see through that
thank you sir
Frank farrell
Smithers bc