Ottawa, Thursday, June 9 – Saturday, June 11, 2011
This past weekend, Conservatives from across the country met in Ottawa for the Conservative Convention, 2011. St. Paul’s was represented at the convention with a full contingent of 10 elected delegates. Each day, Sim Brigden, one of our delegates, gave us his impressions of the event. Excerpts from his emails are provided below.
Day One
Minister John Baird opened the speeches. He gave a rousing speech extolling the virtues of our party without getting himself into too much trouble.
Senator Pamela Wallin and Minister Steven Blaney then kicked things off as MCs.
When was the last time you heard a politician talk about conservative values? Jason Kenney gave an impassioned speech focusing on how the Conservative party did not just win a seat in every province or in both Territories. The real story was that Conservatives have increased their vote in a record four elections in a row. Conservatives went from having 20% of the immigrant/New Canadian vote to have over 60%. This made the difference in riding after riding. This was supposed to be Liberal-owned territory. We showed that Conservative values resonate with New Canadians.
Stockwell Day followed with very insightful descriptions of the realities of Conservatism vis-à-vis the debate with the now, true, Socialists. He pointed out that socialist Provinces always lowered the standard and quality of life of those under their jurisdictions. The NDP strategy is to find someone who is suffering and use that one person to say that the whole system is at fault. The problem is that you don’t take care of one person by making everyone suffer.
Since we’ve been in government, Canada was the first country to rush to China, Haiti, and to not support Hamas. At the G8, 20 world leaders made a pledge to reduce their deficits by 2013. This was achieved through Canada’s leadership.
The media: we have freedom of speech and freedom of the media. With great freedom comes great responsibility. The media need to stop the personal attacks. This also goes to reports of our troops’ misbehaviours. These reports were proven time and time again to be false. Media has been lopsided.
11,000 women passed literacy tests in Afghanistan. A further 6,000 children were vaccinated for Polio. These efforts due largely to Canadian troop presence went completely unreported.
The press has a long way to go.
In short, Stockwell Day gave a wonderful and impassioned speech culminating with a protracted standing ovation.
Peter MacKay followed by presenting Minister Day with a flag flown over Khandahar airfield. The evening closed with an introduction of former Candidates and past Tories such as Chuck Strahl.
Day Two
The schedule is packed, PACKED!
Firstly, quotes from our Delegates:
Megan Patterson:
- Important decisions are being made in the policy meetings
- This is a great opportunity to meet people
- The energy level (post election) is still high and will carry over to the provincial election
Benjamin Sharma:
- There has been a lot of passionate debate among friends vis-à-vis constitutional direction
- Economic resolutions were surprisingly good
- Everyone is so happy – a truly positive mood
Richard Tattersall:
- People are in a celebratory mood
- It is an inherently friendly atmosphere: Megan talked to a 70 year old guy from Sask. I met an entrepreneur from Winnipeg
- I talked with Senator di Nino who reminisced about starting life in a house shared by three families
- Chris Alexander, M.P. grew up on Hillsdale (St Paul’s) and went to Oriole Park Public School with me
- Debate over the leadership format – one member – one vote – appears to be being beaten back.
Now, on to my report:
They are all here. I’m sitting with Monte Solberg listening to Preston Manning while looking out of the beautiful new Convention Centre at the Canadian Flag flying over our parliament buildings.
This morning, I ran around between various policy workshops.
There are three major ones:
Economic development
This workshop involved (as do they all) the passing of various motions with regards to economic policy. A lot of weight was focused on the north. Exploration, protection and sovereignty.
Canada’s social fabric
This was pretty light, in comparison to the other tracks. Changes here were focused mostly on Electoral reform, Tax reform/relief and crime – mostly tweaks to the existing policy.
Constitution
This heavy, thick volume of motions encompassed so much that I can’t really do it justice. Suffice to say that, for you policy wonks, it was full of fun and excitement. There were two contentious issues which stuck out:
- One member, one vote vs. Riding weight. In other words, should Conservatives vote as individuals on internal party policy or should the ridings carry the weight of determinations? The concern is that a group of individuals could take over the direction of the Party without regional representation.
- Youth Wing: Peter van Loan and others argue that, without the OPCYA, they would never have become involved (Provincially). The counter argument (the stronger one) is that we don’t need our youth to be treated separately.
Later tonight, we will have the Leader’s speech.
Tah-toh from the convention floor for now.
Sim
Day Three
“Our party’s great purpose is nothing less than to prepare our nation to shoulder a bigger load, in a world that will require it of us.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper in last night’s speech.
Great news! I shared a quick breakfast bite with Peter Kent. I thanked him on behalf of St. Paul’s for working so hard to lay the foundation for Maureen’s impressive showing. He was, as always, very gracious and sends his regards to all of you, his friends in St. Paul’s.
I told him that Maureen Harquail had moved the yardsticks even further this go-round. On a similar note, to wrap up last night, I was at the Ottawa Arts Centre for some Tory hoop-lah. While I saw many old friends, it was great to meet many new ones. There was also a photo op with Prime Minister Harper. Upon introducing myself as being from St. Paul’s our Prime Minister re-iterated his disappointment with the result. He is obviously very eager to see blue in our section of the electoral map.
Following all the glad-handing, a large crowd of Tories from across this great land cheered in unison as the Canucks took care of the Boston Bruins. Going into the event and feeling the great energy was one thing. Coming out with yet another feeling of victory really made me feel on top of the world!
We are now in the winding down phase of the Convention. After a presentation on the state of our finances by Conservative Fund Chair Irving Gerstein, the Maple Leaf awards were given out. There were some very touching moments. One candidate ran while his wife fought and lost her battle with cancer. Many other members and party faithful were lauded for their long hours and tireless efforts.
From there, we went on to do the final voting on various resolutions. This was a grand gathering of everyone in the hall. We defeated a very contentious motion to have one member one vote as
opposed to riding by riding votes. This defeat ensures riding equality in the voting process of the Party.
At lunch, I had occasion to chat with Co-MC Pamela Wallin. She was very pleased with how congenial the proceedings were.
One thing that really struck me is this: back when Prime Minister Mulroney won, it was, in a large part, because Canadians were “throwing the Liberal bums out”. This go-round, Canadians elected a Strong Stable National Majority Conservative Government because there were voting us in.
We have earned this victory. We have earned the confidence of Canadians and we have earned the right to govern.
The Convention closed with a quintet of MP’s singing the National Anthem. Everyone dissipated to the four winds as we all went back to our respective ridings.
