BC Liberals use Twitter to promote signing BC NDP website petition supporting Carole James remaining on as leaderDirty tricks? Dirty pool? Dirty deeds?
It's hard to know how best to describe efforts on Twitter by known BC Liberal Party activists to encourage non-New Democrats to sign an official BC NDP online petition called BC New Democrats United that urges leader Carole James to continue as leader following veteran MLA Jenny Kwan's strong criticism earlier this week.
But that's what's happening in the past two days.
An article by the Georgia Straight's Stephen Hui posted online December 3 talks about the petition and includes a link to it.
That article has been reTweeted with the header: "Every BCLib in the province should sign" by a number of prominent BC Liberal supporters.
They include BC Liberal Party strategist, Meyers Norris Penny lobbyist and radio political commentator Alise Mills - on Twitter as "Graciestyle", Cossette/Optimum Communications PR Consultant and ex-Liberal PM Paul Martin aide David Brodie , "ChristyClarkFan" - the anonymous but enthusiastic supporter of the CKNW talk show host and putative leadership candidate, and others.
In case the message isn't clear enough, one Twitter post expands on this, saying: "BTW, make sure to sign http://www.bcndp.ca/united and give **the enemy** some chaos :-). Thanks and go BCLibs go!"
Currently as of 2:35 p.m. the BC New Democrats United petition has 2,483 signatures but those names are not visible online, so it's not possible to determine how many if any are non-New Democrats united to cause trouble.
Meanwhile, Public Eye Online's Sean Holman has posted an editorial calling for Carole James to step down as leader, saying she is a decent person who should do the decent thing to "resolve this impasse while fully preserving the New Democrats' chances of winning the next election."
NOTE: My thanks to political observer Pete Quily for first letting me know about the effort on Twitter to encourage BC Liberals to sign BC New Democrats United!
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15 comments:
STATEMENT FROM B.C. NDP CAUCUS CHAIR KATHY CORRIGAN
For Immediate Release
Sunday, Dec. 5, 2010
VANCOUVER – Kathy Corrigan, acting chair of the B.C. New Democrat caucus,released the following statement today:
"The New Democrat caucus meeting planned for 4 p.m. today has been postponed. Time is being given for private discussions to ensure that the clear direction set by our leader and our party is followed: to unite and offer British Columbians a positive progressive alternative in the next election."
Corrigan Statement!
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And there you go.
Carole James tried to bluff and at the last minute folded her hand.
That is NOT leadership.
"Private discussions"?
"The clear direction set by our leader"?
Give us all a break.
Jenny Kwan: "Whenever a challenging policy decision arises, often the default position is to avoid taking a stand."
Carole James obviously made Jenny Kwan's point for her today.
Carole James is not capable of making the tough decisions and she refuses to step aside for someone who can.
Pitiful
Sorry Bill but you've made a mistake. If you look at the tweet, someone MENTIONS me - I did not actually tweet or retweet that comment. Please rewrite your post.
My apologies Geoff - I obviously misread the post - I have removed your name and will remove both your and my comments here if you prefer.
Thanks Bill. No worries, just wanted to make sure it go corrected. You can leave my comments here.
Of course, the BC Liberals support Carole James remaining on as leader.
Carole James has been Gordon Campbell's wet dream come true for several years now and the BC Liberal Party wants her to stay right where she is.
Gordon Campbell made it clear a few weeks ago that the new Liberal leader will continue to follow his policies and with Carole James hanging around as NDP leader like an unwanted party guest at 3 o'clock in the morning that will be a piece of crumb cake.
How this becomes "dirty tricks" or "dirty pool" escapes me.
It's simple really (and highly amusing).
[1] Carole James wants to remain as NDP leader.
[2] The BC Liberal Party wants her to remain as NDP leader.
[3] Jenny Kwan wants a leadership convention and that scares the hell out of Carole James and the BC Liberal Party.
For the love of the BC Liberal Party hold your ground Carole.
Oh and BTW, if it's not too much to ask Carole, please keep Jenny Kwan around as a public reminder of what a weak leader you've been over the years.
The BC Liberal team really appreciates your continuing cooperation.
I am getting very tired of thinking that the NDP have just done the dumbest thing they could possibly have done, by shooting themselves in BOTH feet, yet again.
Then they CANCEL today's meeting! And at the last minute! Good Grieve!
What a bunch of amateurs - incompetent, bumbling, seat of the pants, flip-flopping, amateurs.
And most of them are ideologues - my way or the highway, ideologues; all the while showing themselves to be incompetent, bumbling, seat of the pants, flip-flopping, amateurs! GOOD GRIEVE!
Does the NDP have a leader?
Well said, Paul, well said.
And all too sad.
Paul, your two posts HITS THE NAIL SQUARELY ON THE HEAD. Perfect postings. Now, don't get cocky at all this praise, just keep pounding away at your keyboard.
Bill T., where are you now? Are you involved at any level of the negotiations?
"the clear direction set by our leader" meaning "keep paddling, I hear Niagara Falls is just a bit more down river".
But the postponement might be a good thing. It will give Carole time to prepare her speech calling for a leadership convention after she belatedly decides to show leadership to unify the NDP.
I don't know much about the details of how caucus meetings are run, or who attends.
Have NDP delegates travelled from outside the Lower Mainland to attend the cancelled meeting? If so, who pays their expenses (which have been wasted)?
In any case, James looks less and less like a leader...
Just to clear the air: Alise only RT'd the twitter message, didn't really take part in this. This was an independent effort and perhaps a dope signed her name to it. Hopefully not or if so in such a way that it's obvious it wasn't her. I'm sure entire Outlook address books were dumped onto the petition, it's THAT unsecure!
Also: NO member of the party leadership was involved in this, unlike with the BCNDP involvement in the Oak Bay recall.
I have been going over my naughty and nice list and it looks like..... well lets just say I would swear I saw Carole putting some charcoal on her shiny red nose.
Now I am just dusting off my old Christmas CAROLES and this Rudolph one here says Sinclair errr Santa puts rudolph at the helm in the end regardless.....
So no more Reindeer games .....
Well lets all enjoy some rum and egg nog for the time being as I am sure once we resolve to sober up the kool aid will be flowing again in hopes that out with the old and in with the new won't just be another flip of a calendar page.
Thanks ChristyClarkFan for your comment.
I have no idea whose name has actually been put on the BC NDP United petition or how but my point was that encouraging members and supporters of another party still seems like dirty tricks or at least highly mischievious to me.
The BC Liberals handing out advise, is the chuckle of the month. This province wouldn't be in so much trouble, if it wasn't for Campbell and his henchmen. De Jongs cover up for Campbell's corrupt sale of the BCR, says it all. The trial was held in a corrupt court, presided over by a corrupt judge, who, accepted brain dead witnesses. Who in the hell would take the advise of the Liberals? BC is the most corrupt province in Canada.
I am not impressed with that sort of 'dirty tricks', it does not improve politics of governance. People engaged in such behaviour become corupted and ultimately harmful to the political system.
Even though I have been a supporter of the BC Liberals, I have advocated for a change to the BC NDP leadership because it is important for everyone that the NDP is a strong party and that the NDP win government some of the time. I have been of the opinion the party needed a new leader since about 2006 when it became clear that under Carole James the NDP was not going to be able to be an effective opposition and certainly was not ready to be government.
The NDP should be even more worried come out of this revolt because it is showing how few really active people the party has and the revolt is the first time I have seen any real passion among most New Democrats in ages.
If Carole James had shown the sort of passion in the defense of her position in her role has leader of the government in waiting, there would be much less of a debate about her being leader.
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