Friday, March 06, 2009

Rob Anders lashes-out

Looks like Rob Anders will again have some competition for the Conservative nomination in Calgary-West, and he's not overly pleased about it:

Calgary lawyer Donna Kennedy-Glans, who has started a campaign to vie for Calgary West MP Rob Anders' Conservative nomination, said today she can take whatever names Anders throws at her.

He calls her a "bona fide Liberal." She says she's been a Conservative longer than Anders.

"I fully expected he would call me something. I'm just glad he hasn't called me a feminist lawyer yet," Kennedy-Glans quipped.

"Feminist lawyer," are words Anders used in December 2003 to describe Alberta's Justice Minister Alison Redford, who was then trying to claim the federal Tory nomination from him.

Anders, who has been MP since 1997, had said he was confident he'd have little trouble rounding up enough party votes to defeat Redford, "unless she's got some magic support base of people who like feminist lawyers."
Gee, well Kennedy-Glans must be a feminist lawyer too. I mean, hyphenated name! I'm sure Rob will take note. But seriously, it's amusing that, for all of Anders' bravado, the party has had to resort to a lot of procedural chicanery to protect him from nomination battles in the past:
An Alberta judge has overturned the controversial Tory acclamation of Calgary MP Rob Anders and ordered a new nomination meeting.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Jed Hawco issued a court order instructing the Conservative Party of Canada to restart the nomination process in Calgary West.

Eleven disgruntled Tories have been fighting Anders' unchallenged nomination since last summer, claiming the party did not widely advertise important dates or adequately search for qualified candidates.

It will be interesting to see if the Conservatives allow a fair process this time and give Kennedy-Glans a shot. After all, if there's any MP that doesn't deserve to be in parliament it's Rob Anders:

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien called an Alberta Alliance MP "stupid" Thursday for preventing the House of Commons from making Nelson Mandela an honorary Canadian citizen.

The MP, Rob Anders, shouted "no" Wednesday when the Speaker asked if everyone agreed with the motion.

But it was other words later attributed to Anders that drew Chrétien's ire.

The Liberal MP who presented Wednesday's motion, John McCallum, said Anders called Mandela a former "Communist and a terrorist."

Chrétien said he was stunned by the Alliance MP's comments about South Africa's first black president who fought to end apartheid.

"I think it's horrible, absolutely horrible to call Nelson Mandela ... I will not repeat the term used," the prime minister told reporters. "He's stupid."

Word, Jean. Go Donna!

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