Democracy Takes A Holiday

Ed Stelmach’s Traveling Circus of a government continued its trend of controversial and/or embarrassing acts this month with the nomination of one Craig Chandler as their candidate in the Calgary-Egmont riding. With plummeting popularity never before experienced by Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives, added to the toxic public image of a governing party with a weak leader, the last thing the P.C.s needed was another controversy to hatch. Oddly, this one is much like the majority of other goofs and bloopers by the Stelmach-led government in that it is the party itself that is causing such dismay.

I should state right here and now that this isn’t a rant against Craig Chandler or his victory in the nomination process. The Alberta papers and television news shows are filled with anti-Chandler rhetoric and garbage, and I’ll gladly leave that line of opinion to them (including some previously unabashed pro-Tory scribes). My point is quite the opposite.

Photo courtesy of craigchandler.ca

Even though I do not support many of the ideas or share the same beliefs as Chandler, what I do support and believe in is democracy. When a system is created and agreed upon, it rattles your confidence to see example after example of the ignoring of that very system. The provincial Progressive Conservatives have a system in place (one that, on more than one occasion, I have seen firsthand) that all must follow. Rules are there for everyone. The members of the party spoke overwhelmingly to the party brass and told them with their votes on nomination day who their choice was to represent them in the next election: Craig Chandler.

When word got out that Chandler had been victorious, the media jumped on it like a bum on a steak. Because Chandler is a devout Christian and doesn’t hide it from anyone, he has made statements in the past that the liberal left has used to try to paint him in a very scary light. Even statements not made by Chandler but by guests on his radio show have incorrectly (and purposely) been attributed to him in order to further soil his image.

The deeper issue is how believing in Christ makes you unfit for office, as current media and various liberals seem to think. It’s a head-shaker that I’ll leave for another day.

For his part, Premier Ed has stood by his party and the traditional process by standing by Chand…..um, sorry, no. I can’t lie. Blink, buckle, bend over for the left and the media, call it what you like, but Stelmach has decided to ‘review’ Chandler’s win (and by ‘review’, I of course mean ‘try like hell to find a loophole so we can nullify Chandler’s win’). The milquetoast strikes again! With moves like that, it isn’t a mystery why his leadership is taking the party to previously unthinkable depths.

It is a horrific day in the quest for true democracy when the few can dictate ‘choice’ to the many within a political party. That isn’t how we do things here in Alberta. At least, it shouldn’t be.

If the party members of Calgary-Egmont didn’t really want Chandler, right-wing Christian views and all, to represent them they wouldn’t have voted for him. At the very least, they could have mobilized behind one of Chandler’s competitors. They didn’t. The people of Calgary-Egmont deserve to have their say the next time they go to the ballot box.

That decision isn’t Stelmach’s to make.