Blog Broadsides Liberal Campaign

[scribblet]

This is a hmmmm, wonder who's telling the truth in this one, the Liberal candidate or the NDPer.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...PStory/National

Liberal candidate's aide steps down for on-line remarks about women, gays

BILL CURRY

OTTAWA -- The Liberal candidate in the London North Centre by-election is on the defensive over Internet postings of a senior staffer, who wrote that women should not be allowed to vote and made controversial remarks about gay marriage.

Liberal candidate Glen Pearson said his director of communications, Dave Burghardt, agreed to step down when the candidate learned of the postings, which ran from 2004 until early this summer.

Among the postings, Mr. Burghardt wrote in May, 2005, about Belinda Stronach's defection to the Liberals that: "All of this demonstrates one more reason why women shouldn't be allowed to run for office, much less vote."

He also wrote that supporters of gay marriage are "making a lifelong commitment to anal sex."

NDP candidate Megan Walker said she was approached by Mr. Pearson on Sunday at a campaign event.

She said Mr. Pearson told her about the postings and asked that she not make an issue of them.

Mr. Pearson said he dealt with the situation as soon as he became aware and denies asking the NDP candidate to "cover up" the story. He says he did tell her that he wouldn't go to the press if the shoe were on the other foot.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/200...351316-sun.html Blog broadsides Liberal campaign

Tue, November 14, 2006

By CHIP MARTIN, FREE PRESS POLITICS REPORTER

A cyberspace missile has struck the Liberal byelection campaign of Glen Pearson, prompting his NDP rival to accuse him of a Liberal-style coverup and bad judgment.

Dave Burghardt, one of Pearson's top volunteers, left the London-North-Centre campaign trail Sunday after his record as a blogger -- one who posts musings on the Internet -- was discovered.

The New Democrats uncovered it and are using it for all it's worth in an attempt to "bring down a Liberal." A gleeful local memo to NDP headquarters, obtained by The Free Press, even suggested leaking the story nationally -- even to the Tories, because it is "gold."

see also

[Shakeyhands]

Of course with out knowing all the details it sounds like Pearson did the proper thing, where is the debate here? A staffer did something wrong and was fired when it was discovered.

I means its not like Harper covering up for one of his MP's who said something stupid....

[scribblet]

Depends on your point of view, maybe its simply a divide and conquer stragegy on the part of the NDP, now known as "Memo-gate" .

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/200...351322-sun.html

Still unable to explain how his campaign came into posession of an email from the NDP campaign, the Liberals are upping the rhetoric.

Pearson is saying that the NDP were planning to "ruin the life" of his communications director by -- well, you know -- by releasing things the he had written on his PUBLIC blog when he was a Harper Conservative 12 months ago!

Oh, and the police have been called . . .

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/200...364409-sun.html

Liberal campaign has no answers for "Memo-gate"

NDP candidate Megan Walker has contacted police over interception by the Liberals of an internal NDP memo.

By CHIP MARTIN, FREE PRESS POLITICS REPORTER

Intrigue in cyberspace

New Democrat Megan Walker has contacted London police in a bid to discover how Liberal rival Glen Pearson's camp obtained an internal NDP memo bragging her party was about to "bring down a Liberal" because of inappropriate web blog postings by a Pearson worker.

[normanchateau]

Mr. Pearson said he dealt with the situation as soon as he became aware

What a contrast with how Stephen Harper deals with a situation. When Harper found an extremist who compared Canada to Nazi Germany for passing legislation making it a hate crime to advocate the killing of lesbians, he made Darrel Reid Chief of Staff to the Minister of the Environment. Yet Harper must have known that Reid was the Canadian leader of Focus on the Family, a group which believes global warming is a myth perpetuated by "environmental liberals and radicals."

[Canadian Blue]

Norman, you've already done more then enough in terms of the "I hate Harper" and "Harper endorses killing gays" in various other topics.

[August1991]

Only the BQ has avoided this.

The NDP had Malcolm Azania and the Tories had Gordon Stamp. There was also Thomas Hubert who was NDP/Liberal.

There's no better way to make a fool of yourself in public than with the Internet.

[MightyAC]

I hope this damages both campaigns and Liz May takes the riding.

[Canadian Blue]

I hope May takes the riding, it'll be good for Canada to have a new party that is hopefully much more rational then the New Democrats.

[scribblet]

I wasn't going to bother replying to the trolling and hijacking of threads into the same rants. Global warming isn't a myth but neither is Kyoto the answer and thats another thread.

As for Darrel Reid, I don't know that much about him, or why you keep having hissy fits about him. As far as I know Darrell Reid was the Director of Research for a season when Preston Manning was Leader and from all accounts I’ve heard or read, he acquitted himself exceptionally well during that campaign and he along with his predecessor Ron MacDonald did an excellent job of laying the groundwork for Scott Reid's eventual success in 2000.

After leaving the Hill, I believe Darrell did a stint as the Canadian Director of Focus on the Family, I don’t know much about this, all iIcan say so what - I've heard nothing but praise about him from those who knew him during his time in Ottawa – at least any I’ve met or heard from.

Darrell evidently wrote into a paper saying that he would prefer to ban abortions and samesex marriages but clarified that he would most definitely work within party policy. Something the smear artists fail to mention.

Malicious attempts to smear Darrell Reid because of his religious beliefs is bad enough, but the fact that making religion an issue when running for election puts us on very dangerous ground yet somehow the previous liberal theocracy (yes, that is what it is) sees itself as above reproach and imposes its "values" as if they are morally superior to other beliefs. What a joke!

This is in keeping with the smears and attempts to to portray Harper as a ‘so-con’, which evidently pre-supposes that someone is not fit to be an MP or hold public office if they hold a religious belief. It also plays on the prejudice of those who have allready fallen into the trap of believing everything the left puts out about Harper and the CPC. Fortunately Darrel Reid is not a single issue candidate, nor are any of the others for that matter.

I also share the annoyance that the same smugly sanctimonious, self adoring, inclusively shilling existential humanist theocrats that where, the 'brain trust' are willing to promote or accept ANY cultural tradition as long as it is not Christianity, or shown to be of moral benefit.

This hidden agenda and single issue anti Christian stuff is liberal spin with years of dust on it.

BTW these kinds of issues were debated well before the election when the Globe and Mail was conducting their smear of Christian candidates. There is a hidden agenda but it is not what every one thinks it is.

Bill Graham at the time and apparantly Norman is having fits over the appointment of Darrel Reid as an aid to Rona Ambrose. Personally I would rather have someone like D. Reid representing me than a one issue smear artist like NC. - and again NC has managed to side track a top into bashing Harper etc.

[scribblet]

Now, back to 'memogate' or Intrigue in Cyberspace and is it possible that the CPC candidate could gain from this and come up the middle as the Liberals up the rhetoric.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/200...364409-sun.html

Intrigue in cyberspace

Wed, November 15, 2006

NDP candidate Megan Walker has contacted police over interception by the Liberals of an internal NDP memo.

New Democrat Megan Walker has contacted London police in a bid to discover how Liberal rival Glen Pearson's camp obtained an internal NDP memo bragging her party was about to "bring down a Liberal" because of inappropriate web blog postings by a Pearson worker.

-snip how would the Liberals get hold of an internal NDP memo? or is there an NDP mole

The Pearson camp retaliated by leaking the internal NDP memo. Walker trumped that move by calling police.

"We are aware interception of private communications is illegal," Walker said. "We want to find out how it was intercepted."

Walker said her campaign team is working with police to give them further information about the memo. She said as of yesterday afternoon no police investigation was formally underway.....

[normanchateau]

This is in keeping with the smears and attempts to to portray Harper as a ‘so-con’, which evidently pre-supposes that someone is not fit to be an MP or hold public office if they hold a religious belief.

Who presupposes that someone is not fit to be an MP or hold public office if they hold a religious belief? Certainly I don't. Most of our MPs, be they Conservative, Liberal, NDP or BQ, hold religious beliefs.

Religious beliefs of a politician only become a concern to me when a politician attempts to impose his or her own personal religious beliefs on ALL Canadians or attempts to deny rights to others based on those beliefs.

As far as "attempts to portray Harper as a 'so-con' " are concerned, he is a so-con. The evidence for that extends beyond any religious beliefs, e.g., his desire to impose permanent criminal records on teenagers who possess even a few grams of marijuana.

[scribblet]

This is in keeping with the smears and attempts to to portray Harper as a ‘so-con’, which evidently pre-supposes that someone is not fit to be an MP or hold public office if they hold a religious belief.

Who presupposes that someone is not fit to be an MP or hold public office if they hold a religious belief? Certainly I don't. Most of our MPs, be they Conservative, Liberal, NDP or BQ, hold religious beliefs.

Religious beliefs of a politician only become a concern to me when a politician attempts to impose his or her own personal religious beliefs on ALL Canadians or attempts to deny rights to others based on those beliefs.

As far as "attempts to portray Harper as a 'so-con' " are concerned, he is a so-con. The evidence for that extends beyond any religious beliefs, e.g., his desire to impose permanent criminal records on teenagers who possess even a few grams of marijuana.

That's your opinion, but your in the wrong topic, quit hijacking threads.

[geoffrey]

I hope May takes the riding, it'll be good for Canada to have a new party that is hopefully much more rational then the New Democrats.

The Greens more rational? Hardly. It's a mixed bag of hippies and rejected businessmen.

No one will elect a fringe, special interest, one track party like the Greens... unless your a BQ supporter I guess.

[normanchateau]

I hope May takes the riding, it'll be good for Canada to have a new party that is hopefully much more rational then the New Democrats.

The Greens more rational? Hardly. It's a mixed bag of hippies and rejected businessmen.

I wonder how many of those who vote Green have even read their 2006 platform. The Greens want to legalize marijuana. The Liberals merely wanted to decriminalize it. The Greens want to lower the voting age to 17.

Green policies are quite radical relative to those of the NDP.

[scribblet]

I havn't seen anything in the rest of the media about this, they seem to be missing the important part of the story, that is the part about the liberal candidate intercepting NDP emails. This has been reported to the police.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/200...351322-sun.html

Bringing down a Liberal'

Tue, November 14, 2006

Memo shows NDP overjoyed at blog meltdown.

By CHIP MARTIN, FREE PRESS POLITICS REPORTER

The NDP gleefully pounced on a chance to "bring down" Liberal rival Glen Pearson in the