Dear Mr. Blackmore: Thanks for your interest. In Canada we have traditionally had two political parties, the Liberals and Conservatives with the Conservatives, from the founding of Canada up until the second term of our last Prime Minister Brain Mulroney, being against the concept of Free Trade with the US. The argument has always been that tariffs protect us from our big neighbour to the south. Currently we have three additional parties, just for clarification. Anyway, the backlash against Mulroney in the last election devastated the Conservative Party and they only had two seats in the next election, a stinging rebuke. The Liberals won the election with the promise to re-open the Free Trade Agreement, which they have reneged on. Anyway, back to the Conservatives. They are now holding a leadership election for a new party leader. The previous leader saw fit to become a Liberal at the Provincial level in the hopes of blocking Quebec from separating from Canada. Wow, as I write this, I realize how convoluted our political landscape is. Well anyway, the Conservatives being banished by the electorate to a marginal party revised their Electoral Rules for electing a new party leader so that any member of the Party can cast a vote, rather than just delegates who had been selected from the local ridings. This is quite a daring innovation as it allows the public at large to pay a $10 membership fee to become a Party member and therefore you can have a vote on who becomes the Party leader - quite democratic actually. Now, as it turns out, one of the most vocal and effective individuals who tried to rally Canadians to reject Mulroney's Free Trade Agreement has entered the Conservative's leadership race. Talk about the fox in the hen house. At first the big wheel Conservatives were laughing at David Orchard but in a David and Goliath type of scenario, David is showing a remarkable ability to get people across Canada to fork over $10 for the privilege of voting for him to become the leader of the Conservatives. Unfortunately, not being a citizen of Canada, I would assume that you cannot become a member of a Canadian Political Party, however, you have done yeoman service by your question. If David succeeds in becoming the Leader of the Conservative Party, he will have a magnificent task ahead of him, the re-orientation of this party to it's traditional roots. In the process, he will have the satisfaction of purging the last of the Mulroney hanger on's and thus getting his ultimate revenge on those who defeated him when he was fighting against Free Trade. Even more important to Canada, in my humble opinion, we will finally have a Canadian leader who is not a lawyer, or insider or elite, who will have no trouble looking Uncle Sam in the eye and saying, "Sorry, I don't think we'll do that!" Canadians always being polite except when we fight and then we just become stubborn and tenacious and refuse to lose. Now, of course, the media, being in the pocket of who ever will support their monopoly on the news has kept this whole exciting development out of sight by not printing anything of note about the upcoming election. It is going to be very interesting and in fact could turn out to be one of those seminal political events that no one could foresee that will change the direction of the country in significant ways. Respectfully, Thomas Lunde PS: Here is David Orchards URL www.davidorchard.com. -----Original Message----- From: M.Blackmore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: September 20, 1998 6:43 PM Subject: Tory Party membership - err, what's the position for expats? >I was intrigued by your letter in FW - but know NOTHING about Orhcard or >what he has been up to (Anti MAI - err, the Klu Klux Klan is anti MAI, and >there is a line even I will draw..). Tell me more (or post a bit more to >enlighten those not resident in the promised land). > >Convince me and I will join. Only trouble is I live in Oxford, England, >and have done so for a long long time. I have never been on a Canadian >electoral roll, though never taken another passport either. > >Be interested to see if I can join - and vote. > >Perhaps send me an address for the Orchard campaign???
