Unity turfed in favour of ego

By Letter to the Editor on September 5, 2018.

Unity. For most members of the Conservative cause it is the vehicle for achieving our goals, it is our greatest strength to have a united consensus voice, all opinions heard and debated, and one combined vision to prosperity. I remember the recent leadership elections in the CPC and UCP, stronger together, do not recklessly split the right, trust me lead us all and country before self was the common theme espoused by candidates and political big names.

But if you lose or fall foul of the rules then all that stuff can go hang because my ego is far more important than accepting results or consequences for poor judgement must have been a clause that slipped by unnoticed by the grassroots faithful.

First, we have Mr. Derek Filderbrandt the founder of United Liberty and one of the driving forces for the Progressive Conservative/Wildrose merger. A vocal supporter of Jason Kenney, a potential leadership challenger and the bane of Brian Jean throughout the election. He made multiple errors in judgment that resulted in his expulsion from the UCP caucus. Did he accept the consequences of his actions and work towards a strong, united right-of-centre future?

The FCP, the former Separation Party of Alberta, is your answer there. Why stick to professed beliefs and stances when you can take your ego for a spin. Claiming to have no more wish than to be an honest broker in a future right-of-centre coalition, it would be hard to find a sitting MLA whose recent record is less honest and with fewer broken commitments.

And so, we move to the curious case of Mr. Maxime Bernier. A former minister of foreign affairs in Prime Minister Harper’s government till his resignation for the Julie Couillard briefing book controversy, he then went on to put in a solid tenure as a backbench MP and minister of small businesses.

Come the leadership election he stood as one of the front runners in a relatively crowded field before being defeated in the final ballot by Mr. Andrew Scheer. Although the imperial court atmosphere cultivated by Mr. Bernier over the election weekend prior to the results left a slightly sour taste he agreed to work towards a unified future.

Till he decided that he was robbed of the crown and here’s the book to prove it, discarding members of his own party as fake conservatives and the party itself as “Intellectually and morally corrupt” I wonder Max how the 49 per cent who favoured your leadership feel about that glowing description.

He was removed from the shadow team and asked to tow the party line and honour his pledge to the leadership. Instead we have yet again another similar case of “I’m right and I will form my own party to prove it.” Gone is the unity cry, cast aside is the one vision future, supplanted is the consensus goals, all replaced by the crowning of ego first, country later.

In the words of former prime minister Stephen Harper

“It is clear that Max never accepted the result of the leadership vote and seeks only to divide conservatives. His decision today allows the Conservative Party of Canada to move forward United behind our leader Andrew Scheer.”

Time will tell whether the sour grapes and egos of two men will result in second terms for the provincial NDP and federal Liberals. My hope is that their dividing agendas are treated with the level of respect deserved for such endeavours

Zero.

Myles Mulholland

Medicine Hat

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