Sunday, January 07, 2007

Laying out the welcome mat for Wajid?

Commenter KTR in the previous thread makes an interesting observation. It appears that the Conservative government may have been laying the groundwork for a floor crossing by Wajid Khan as early as October, arranging a cushy patronage appointment for the previous Conservative candidate in his riding.

Not that I’m one to subscribe to conspiracy theories or anything, but it is interesting.


You’ll remember it was August when Khan was appointed by Harper as his special advisor on the Middle East. Two months later, on October 31, then Immigration Minister Monte Solberg appointed Raminder Gill as a citizenship judge. Gill was the Conservative candidate for Mississauga-Streetsville in 2006 where he lost to the Liberal candidate…Wajid Khan.


I’m sure Monte and Stephen were just planning ahead, preparing for every eventuality, making sure there was a welcome mat with lots of comfy fur ready for their special advisor. Probably a big coincidence, I'm sure.

I'm reminded of another big coincidence though. David Emerson's crossing to the floor to the Conservatives just days after the election was a big shock. We heard later though that his Conservative opponent in that election, Kanman Wong, was ready to step aside and let Emerson have the Conservative nomination before the 05/06 campaign had even began. Generous offer, but David of course decided to stay as a Liberal long enough to win his seat under the Liberal banner and then cross the floor to the Conservatives for the good of the country.

One wonders what Wong knew that the rest of us didn't. Dido Solberg. Pretty coincidental coincidences.

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19 comments:

Olaf said...

Jeff,

See, the best thing about coincidences is that they are by nature coincidental. Interesting post though, but the way I see it, if someone is clever enough to pull off a conspiracy and fool basically everyone in the country (you and KTR excluded), I think they deserve to get away with it.

That level of clever deserves to be rewarded.

Robert McClelland said...

From Gill's wiki bio.
In 2002, he supported Tony Clement for the leadership of the Ontario Tories.

So Raminder supported Clement's leadership bid and according to the talking points the Cons have been issuing all weekend, so did Wajid Khan.

I'm beginning to detect a foul odour on this one.

kenlister1 said...

Jeff,
I always liked your blog best. :)
Thanks for the credit which will boost my already overinflated ego.

Anonymous said...

6 months to the day I wrote at CalgaryGrit:

"Wajid sent out to his constituents an 8-page Summer 2006 Parliamentary Report last week. Only pages 4 and 5 have the word "Liberal" in them. Page three has a picture of Wajid with Flaherty with the heading "In April I had the pleasure of introducing the Governor of the Bank of Pakistan to the Min. of Fince, Jim Flaherty"

Volpe should drop this opportunist before he crosses the floor."

This crossing was planned long, long ago.

HEADS UP:

Most Liberal folks are not aware how difficult of an issue the Liberal stance on SSM is for older, first generation immigrants.

Many older folks of Sikh, Muslim, Catholic and other orthodox religions are just not comfortable with SSM.

I initially called Khan an opportunist. After many conversations with members of the Sikh and Muslim communities, I feel SSM may have played an even greater role in Khan's jump than opportunism.

Because of this issue anyone who tells you that they can get Muslims or Sikhs in mass to support Liberals is lying.

Younger MPs like Omar and Navdeep and Ruby can pull it off, with their older backers displeased, but Gurbax and Khan can not.

Anonymous said...

On CTV's Question Period today Harper referred to Khan as a "new Canadian."
Talk about spin. The guy's been around Canada for 30+ years but in Harper's eyes he is "new." Who's Harper trying to kid here?
I wonder what Harper really thinks of Khan, or what Harper thinks of the "old" Canadians: the aboriginals, or worse, the French...
Sounded to me like Harper was trying to frame Khan as a "new" Canadian just getting a handle on which policies or political party to follow, and finally seeing the light. We all know that Khan is an old hand at all these parlour umm political games.
If Khan was a car he'd have bumper stickers supporting pretty much everyone.
If Khan were a car, what would be the blue book value? nyuk nyuk
They're welcome to him, but please Harper and Khan, for the sake of the children and real "new" Canadians, STOP lying!

Anonymous said...

Quote Mississauga Peter:

"Because of this issue anyone who tells you that they can get Muslims or Sikhs in mass to support Liberals is lying"

It just clearly shows how you don't understand the functioning of ethnic politics.

As I told you, you are just ruining the chances for Magdy by consistently making irresponsible comments about ethnic communities and their leaders.

Anonymous said...

Ethinc politics make me sick.
That a community leader can presume to speak for a racial group due to common colour of skin, etc is a farce.
No party should lower themselves to this stupidity.

ps> I represent all white middle aged women. I say they should vote NDP.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,

Your understanding (or lack of it) of Ethnic politics makes me sick.

First make an effort to understand the issues, then you will understand the functioning of politics in the Italian, Portugese,Ukranian, Irish, Jewish, sikh, muslim communities.

Anonymous said...

Who is irresponsible Vijay?

It's a fact that Omar, Navdeep, Ruby, Gurbax, and Khan have had their respective communities pressure them on the SSM issue. The older, first generation, South Asian is not on the same side of the SSM issue than most Liberals.

It is irresponsible Vijay for you to be pushing all these out of Peel South Asians (Usman - get real, came 6th out of 9 in Markham in November) as heirs to the Mississauga-Streetsville Liberal nomination. Each and every riding should be decided by the individual's qualifications, not by how many busloads of out of riding people they can get into a delegation meeting. (Note: It is NOT only visible minorities that do this).

By the way, your only pick that is under serious consideration is: Kania. Andrew (lives in Peel) or Mahoney (lives in Mississauga) or Rock (lives next door in Etobicoke) or Maghera (my personal fav; female; decade plus of REAL Liberal experience; female; South Asian ancestry - but this should not matter; lives in Mississauga) will get the nod.

Your predictions have been incorrect before and will be again. Mandy's stock has increased, not fallen, the past week.

Anonymous said...

Just to clarify, I am not endorsing Khalid Usman or any other candidate. Can you show me one place where I have endorsed any candidate? My predictions have been far more correct than most other people and I have nothing against Mandy, but your aggressive nature to demean others will hurt her chances. I never said anything about Mandy, and I might even support her if I like her, but your approach will turn off people and am just warning you.

Lets face it. have a fair open nomination and the winner will be the candidate, whoever that will be.

BTW do you know how many MP's in GTA are out of riding and still don't live in the riding, maybe you should look into that and if riding is an issue, I would like to see where Bob, Martha and others will run.

End of the day, the person with the best chance is going to win and I think it should be decided by the members of the riding in a open fair nomination process.

I put the names of people that I heard and those who approached me for support. If you would have emailed me on Mandy, I would have put her name too. I ahve no problems with it. You instead went to call me names and attack me. Fair enough.

I'm not even sure if you are authorised by her to draft her candidacy in a manner you are doing, but I will raise it, if she runs and asks for my support. I'm not going to waste my time on this, good luck on it and may the best candidate win, if it is Mandy then I will be supporting her.

Anonymous said...

Vijay,

My choice for Liberal leader was always know. Not a negative word about other candidates came from me before or after the federal leadership race.

My choice for candidate I have made known. But I will not stay quiet if someone like you thinks a nomination should be determined by someone's skin colour or religion.

Your comments/blog at times are excessive. They may be fine for you and your friends and some of your community. They do cross the line and are not acceptable to other members of your community and many people outside your community.

Robert McClelland said...

Garth Turner just picked up on the story which means there's a good chance it will now make it into the media.

Anonymous said...

None of the candidates I have in the list are of my religion, Kania and Kennedy are far from being Brown. Irshad is gay, Akaash is christian, Khalid is muslima and the new name that I have given the party is Writer Rohinton Mistry who is Zorostrian and as a FYI, I have turned down requests from my friends to consider this riding and have no personal interest in the riding, evn though I did sign up a few hundred members during leadership.

Where is the hell does my religion (Hindu) or just a push on south asian candidate comes here.


I thought I was having a debate, I reaslised you have no clue on either what Iam saying or how politics work.

I'm saying this again as I always did. Have a fair open nomination meeting and let the members of the riding decide who is the best candidate, blue brown, black, white , hindu, sikh, christian, muslim, athetist or what ever.

LET THE MEMBERS OF THE RIDING DECIDE THE CANDIDATE, NOT YOU OR ME having a useless chat here. All I am doing is throwing names that I hear and those I think might be interested. account close. You want our candidate to win, don't waste time here, do what you need to win a nomination. Period.

Anonymous said...

"As sure as the the big coincidence that Stronach just happened to cross over and save PMPM's Government from losing a non-confidence motion. And a Cabinet Post sure looked good as "comfy fur" on Stronach didn't it? And what animal was that fur?Oh yes, principles fur."

You know, I am not sure why it is so hard for some conservative supporters to get it. The point is that Harper and Co. have been portraying this whole thing as being based on Khan's principles when his party leader forced him to choose between "Canada and the liberals". Now it turns out that this crossing may have been in the works for many weeks. In other words, there is now evidence that Harper was lying when he said Khan crossed only because Dion forced him to.

Seems to me the only thing Dion did was force Harper and Khan to play their hand earlier than planned.

The Stronach episode has absolutely nothing to do with it, though I certainly understand why you would follow your fearless leader's tactic of deflecting criticism by trotting out old liberal "misdeeds".

Gayle

Anonymous said...

Rohinton Minstry, lol.

Irshad Manji. Who are you proposing next, Michael Ondaatje, Neil Bissondath? This is a Liberal nomination, not the revival of TVO's Imprint.

Anonymous said...

Rohinton is a brilliant guy, who lives around there and a Internationally renowned writer. If we canhave bankers, Lawyers, Atheletes, why not intelligent writers, who fit the poltical dyanamics of the riding and will be a star candidate, good enough to crush Wajid.

Anonymous said...

Well well Wajid Khan.....he remained true to his turncoat instinct! Without indulding into partisan politics....just analyze the justifications he is providing for his blatant act of political immorality:

1. When I was asked to make a choice, I chose my country over the party!!! What a non-sensical bullshit. You chose a party my dear car seller! You joined the Conservative Party and left the Liberal Party. You could have stayed independant after quitting the liberal party and still have provided your over-inflated window-dressing services to the country! So you are claiming here that Wajid Khan with his mole-like instinct is the only one who could love Canada.....Wrong on all counts!

2. TV reports....Khan always a true conservative at heart! So if he was a true conservative at heart, what was he doing in Liberal Party to begin with. He knew that he would never win as a Convervative and he always touted himself as a buggy boy for Paul Martin to be close to him in community functions when Khan was aspiring to become a candidate. Conservative values and party have been around for quite a sometime but Khan realized that now oh! I am a conservative! A regular mongering by a cheat at heart!

3. He answered to a question - I offered my servivces to Mr. Dion in the same capacity as an expert on Middle East and South Asia but he never responded....and yet again he doesnt want any perk and his floor crossing is only for Canada! Another funny explanation. So he thinks that he must be recognized by Dion as the ONLY brain (bran) who can talk about Middle East and SA! Well, spare me Khan.....Dion knows a word or two when it comes to political science expertise.

4. In his native country Pakistan, Parliamentarians arealways ready to cross the floors for any kind of benefit....and they are proverbially called "lotas" (baseless round based earthen pots used to wash bum after answering the call of nature)! So what should Wajid Khan be called in French!

As a car dealer he used to say in his own voice on community radio ads that summer is in the air, so come and enjoy an open top mazda, well he really has opened his TOP!

Good luck Wajid Khan! You really did show to the world that you were politically and intellectually bankrupt!

A Hard Hitter!

Anonymous said...

I am not here to help Stephen Harper but should he consider this lady for Streetsville instead?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayaan_Hirsi_Ali

Her alleged stay in Canada was questionable and has lied all her life. Someone who Ezra Levant and Jason Kenney would drool over. All she needs is an asylum process expedited by Diane Finley.

Robert McClelland said...

Good job, Jeff.