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Thursday, July 9, 2015

Alienating their own supporters

“The party has gone to hell” Newfoundland Tories lament


When former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney calls from Rome to express sympathy and outrage that Ches Crosbie was blocked from running as a Conservative candidate in the 2015 federal election, you know the Conservative Party of Canada has a big problem.

Nor does that problem get any smaller, when former Conservative cabinet minister Jim McGrath calls to add his voice to the political maelstrom triggered by this blunder of epic proportions.

“The party has gone to hell,” he told his former cabinet colleague and fellow Newfoundlander.

“Of course it’s gratifying to get a call from the former prime minister and other colleagues,” said John Crosbie, a former giant of the Progressive Conservatives of the Mulroney days. “Brian was enthusiastic and full of energy as usual. The whole thing was an outrage from start to finish.”

The political lesson here? You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger – and you don’t mess around with John.

The elder Crosbie had this to say about the “humiliation” of his son Ches, and his rejection as “unsuitable” as a candidate in the October 19 federal election by the Conservative Party of Canada this past week.

“Ches doesn’t want to appeal this cowardly decision because he doesn’t want to be humiliated a second time,” Crosbie said, speaking for his son who is on vacation in Cambridge, England for another week. “I’d like him to run as an ‘independent.’ There is general anger and frustration down here. I feel like running myself and beating the piss out of them.”

As patriarchal lions go, the senior member of Newfoundland’s Crosbie clan still has a mighty roar, particularly when protecting the cub that bears his own father’s legendary name.

READ MORE: http://ipolitics.ca/2015/07/05/the-party-has-gone-to-hell-newfoundland-tories-lament/


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