Re: Tory Party Membership

[Thomas Lunde]

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???

Re: Tory Party membership - err, what's the position for expats?

[Thomas Lunde]

Dear Mr. Blackmore:

Excuse my inability to understand your citizenship.  I guess I don't know
the answer to your question, however, I am going down to register as a
Conservative Party Member this afternoon and I will inquire.

You asked, "So, apart from MAI and a free trade bias (on what basis?", I
assume you are asking on what basis is David seeking the Conservative Party
Leadership?  I don't know.  However, I can give you my opinion and that is
there exists an opportunity to enter politics at a high enough level to
provide leadership and thence direction.  Normally, David would pick a
party, perhaps the Conservatives, campaign in a local riding and become
another ineffectual Member of Parliament.  Perhaps after several terms and
with luck being in a Party that won the right to govern, he might even
become a Cabinet Minister.  Perhaps, if history favoured him, he might even
be able 10 - 20 years from now run in a conventional leadership convention
in which he would have to sell his soul to backroom deals to get a majority.
By that time, I assume, like Joe Clark, a good and honest man and Hugh Segal
another good and honest man, he would have compromised himself many times
through Parliamentary politics that he could not honestly hold any
leadership direction that was not compromised by previous exchanges of
favours - not necessarily dishonest, just politically necessary.

This new direction of the Conservative Party offers a unique opportunity for
unconditional leadership to be asserted.  Yes, he is a bit of a one trick
pony, but it is a very big pony.  The argument that Free Trade has put
Canada on the road to practical if not actual domination and assimilation by
the US is compelling.  It is a bad deal and the promised advantages have not
been forthcoming.  It is time to renegotiate or get out before they take all
our oil and gas and water under special clauses in this agreement that give
the US certain proprietary rights.  Because the media has been so neglectful
in covering all the candidates, I would guess the average citizen has no
facts on what David or the others would do regarding some of our current
issues.

I hope I have given you a little more info.  And if I find out about your
status, I will promptly E Mail you the information.

Respectfully,

Thomas Lunde

-Original Message-
From: M.Blackmore [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: September 21, 1998 8:12 AM
Subject: Re: Tory Party membership - err, what's the position for expats?


Hi Tom

Err, re-read my query again - I *am* a Canadian, just been resident abroad
for some 25 years and left at an age where I had never got around to
be voter registered in Hamilton before going (met an English lass who
would not leave her mother and the rest is history, as they say).

I have followed events from afar with some interest, i.e. recall Kim
Tankie's demise with satisfaction (my parents were staunch NDP'ers and Mum
was seriously into Social Credit - *Real* social credit of the
commonwealth variety, not the pastiche it became - so the idea of Tory's
makes my skin literally crawl.

What one does not hear, of course, is the fine grain information of events
apart from elections and such like, so Orchard is someone I have never
seen reported over here.

So, apart from MAI and a free trade bias (on what basis? We have backwoods
Torie's here who's only basis for being agin the EC is "we fought in the
war" and "they aren't English (sic)"...

And my question was ... can expatriatess of many year's abscence join up?
Sounds like it could be interesting to throw my small handful of sand into
the gears :-)

Malcolm