Monday, November 27, 2006

Feel that whip

So Harper triple-whipped this thing? Interesting. I could go through the archives and pull up a bunch of fun quotes from the Harper gang about how whipping is bad, freedom of blah blah, but who has time? They don’t get to hop on that high horse again though. Take a note.

Watching the vote. Looks like Garth Turner has his Dell out at his desk and is typing away. Live blogging perhaps, does the HoC have WiFi?


Final score, passes 266 to 16.

Don Newman reports six Conservatives hid in a closet rather than having to come down one way or another. Not one Conservative voted no. Given a choice between standing-up for their beliefs and their constituents and following orders from the PMO, they chose to follow orders. Reform Party, RIP. Good on Michael Chong anyway, although why didn’t he show up to vote NO after all that?


Garth Turner voted no, along with 15 Liberals. All the Dippers and BQ presented voted yes.


The Liberals to vote no were Joe Commuzi, Maria Minna, Diane Marleau, Joe Volpe, Raymond Chan, Jimmy K, Hedy Fry, Dan McTeague, Bill Matthews, Scott Sims, Don Bell, Ken Dryden, Paul Steckle, Andrew Telegdi and Navdeep Bains.


Agggh! On the CBC, Newman just threw it back to the anchor who intro’d a piece from The Hour on Gerard Kennedy, whom she just called the “only Liberal leadership candidate opposed to the motion.” Umm, was she watching her own channel like two seconds ago? I counted two other candidates that voted no, Ken Dryden and Joe Volpe. That would be three candidates. Indeed Don, was making just that point seconds before they threw back to her.


P.S. I trust his supporters are happy with the amount of press Gerard is getting now? :)

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6 comments:

calgarygrit said...

Yup. Very pleased with it.

Of course, I'm too busy packing to watch/read any of it...

Steve V said...

I couldn't believe Chong wasn't there, but I suppose he agreed to not embarrass Harper.

Did Martin say anything throughout this debate, because from here the silence is deafening?

ottlib said...

Mr. Kennedy just set himself up for the same experience he had during the Ontario Liberal Leadership race.

He does not speak French very well and he has come out against recognizing Quebec as a nation.

That means a Liberal Party lead by him is dead in Quebec until he is gone, which in effect means they lose at least the next two elections.

The party establishment will not tolerate that so he is toast.

The idea of party renewal will only go so far. Many of the Liberals who will show up in Montreal will not sacrifice power for the better part of a decade for the sake of renewal.

Michael Fox said...

Hedy Fry, Joe Volpe, Andrew Telegdi...

There's a group of winners.

- and perhaps Don was referring to legitimate leadership candidates. :)

Robert McClelland said...

I could go through the archives and pull up a bunch of fun quotes from the Harper gang about how whipping is bad, freedom of blah blah, but who has time?

Allow me to save you the time and serve up the broken promise right from the Cons' platform.

7. Free Votes

A Conservative Government will restore democratic accountability in the House of Commons by allowing free votes. A Conservative Government will make all votes free, except for the budget and main estimates. On issues of moral conscience, such as abortion, the definition of marriage and euthanasia, the Conservative Party acknowledges the diversity of deeply held personal convictions among individual Party members and the right of Members of Parliament to adopt positions in consultation with their constituents and to vote freely.

Jeff said...

Steve, I don't know if former PMPM made a speech this afternoon or not. Probably not, as I'm sure we'd have heard something about it. Probably appropriate though, he doesn't want to overshadow Graham and the candidates.

Ottlib, I won't quibble with the rest of your analysis, but how does this equate with Gerard's experience in the OL race?

TT, we all have our, shall we say, colourful characters...

Robert, I think they had their fingers crossed at the time.