Buckdog

"I just saw former Conservative Party Leadership contender, David Orchard... He sought the Tory leadership in both 1998 and 2003."

Correction: he was a former PROGRESSIVE Conservative leadership contender. There is a difference and it should be noted.

The reason why we have a united "conservative" party is because Orchard gave away the PC party to the Alliance in that infamous deal with Peter MacKay.

Many progressives within the old PC party are now liberals, including Brison. The difference between Orchard and Brison is that Scott actually voted FOR the merger and then crossed the floor.


"David - why don't you pick something you can actually stand for, commit to it fully, and then stick to it? Sheeeesh!"

That's the question members of the Progressive Canadian party have been asking since day 1. Orchard fought for the PC name and progressive-conservative politics after it was hijacked by Harper and the Canadian Alliance and we had hoped that he would lead our brand of tried and true politics. Orchard, instead, became a Liberal so he could sit in the spotlight. His values should seriously be questioned and if I was a traditional Liberal I would push away Orchard's support if he offered it to me.

A conservative Is a conservative Is a progressive conservative.

I live in a province where 16 PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE MLA'S WERE CONVICTED OF FRAUD AND BREACH OF TRUST.

How you can support a party with such a criminal record is beyond me. The fact that you are a Rider fan helps, but for gawds sake man, where I come from, Tories (whether Progressive Conservative or just plan old Conservatives) are CROOKS!!!!
Saskatchewan Progressive Conservatives

Lest we forget leftdog, that I was born and raised in Saskatchewan. I am well aware of Grant Devine and his cronies.

I am also well aware of the faults of the Saskatchewan NDP.

Are you really going to put Joe Clark into the same party as Grant Devine?

I am a Joe Clark progressive-conservative. Clark and the federal PC party (then, under Mulroney) had nothing to do with the Devine PCs in Saskatchewan.

That's like saying that you could never EVER vote Liberal because of AdScam 10 years after the fact. That's like saying you could never vote Democrat in the US because they didn't abolish slavery.

:) And since we're going to bring the 'Riders into it, keep in mind that since the NDP has been in power in Saskatchewan the Roughriders have not won a Grey Cup. Only under Liberal and PC (both centrist) governments has Saskatchewan won the Grey Cup. Just a thought.

"I am also well aware of the faults of the Saskatchewan NDP" - (Devine never balanced one budget and added BILLIONS TO THE DEBT. The NDP have balanced most budgets and paid down BILLIONS on the debt - 16 PC Cabinet Ministers were found GUILTY in Court of Queesn Bench - to even compare the NDP to the Criminal Progressive Conservatives is bizarre partisanship at it's wosrst).

"Are you really going to put Joe Clark into the same party as Grant Devine?" (yes - same substance / a difference of degree only).

Look at Mulroney's crew! While Mulroney himself is honest, his term was riddled with individuals (because 'rights of the individual is at the core of Tory ideology) who couldn't keep their hands out of the till.

Conservatives attract a lot of entrepreurial / business types and that is fair ball - but they also attract ALL of the business nuts and scheisters and swindlers who think they can line their own pockets etc etc.

That's also what happended to the Chretien / Martin Liberals - scams, fraud, breach of trust, etc etc

It's disappointing that you feel that Joe Clark and Grant Devine are in the same boat based. Their only similarity is the colour of their ties.

Your convictions to the NDP both provincially and federally are honourable :) There should be more politicians like you who know what they believe and stick to it.

I will say one thing about Joe Clark. He IS an honest man - an honest politician!! When he ran in Calgary and was the ONLY MP elected from Alberta who was not a Reformer, I cheered for him, wanted him to win, and just might have voted for him in that constituency if I had lived there.

Loyalty to him, as you show, is a tribute to him as a leader and as an honest political broker.

BD:

It would probably be easier for him to stick with a party that didn't keep changing its name and ideology. I suspect he will find a more comfortable home with the Liberal Party.

What ticks me off is all of the time and energy he spent selling Tory memberships - raising money for them as well, with some sort of twisted idea that he could turn the Conservatives back into the party of John Diefenbaker.

As I watched the end of the Liberal leadership, there was Orchard, trying to stand beside Dion with his green scarf on.

Shameless self promotion in politics is one thing - this is something completely different.

Just a quick clarification 2 years after this was posted...but anyway...After the merger of the Alliance and PCs David Orchard took out a membership in the new party and was set to attend the first convention. The Conservative Party brass revoked his membership. He was without a party until the Liberals aked him to run for them.