Rob Anders watch

From a Calgary Herald column about Stephen Harper's recently carefully-staged photo-op in Calgary, a few amusing Rob Anders observations:

Preening in apparent ecstasy is the magnificently muscled Calgary West MP Rob Anders, who poses everywhere while his riding assistant takes one photo after another. A convert to power lifting, Anders appears to be busting for a good clean and jerk.

He doesn't go quite as far as he did the day before at a Sports Hall of Fame event, when he had his photo taken at the podium even though he didn't speak.

Forgive me, but I just find the idea of Anders posing here and there while his assistant dutifully takes pictures amusing. Maybe he's working on a coffee table book?

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PS. Check-out my entry for the YLC's positive politics ad challenge, "Is this your Canada?"

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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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It's getting embarassing for Cons in Calgary-West

We Libs often take flack for some of our nomination practices, and often the criticism is warranted. And I'm loath to get all on a high horse about nominations given that history and given, say, the LPC's decision not to oppose Elizabeth May in Central Nova.

But this latest story, on the Conservative Party’s rigging of the nomination process in favour of Rob Anders in Calgary-West…well, it’s something. Why don’t they just come out and make an appointment? This ham-fisted rigging of the nomination process is so transparent it’s laughable, and it's not fooling anyone.

Tories spend thousands in court fight to preserve MP Rob Anders' nomination

JAMES STEVENSON

CALGARY (CP) - The Conservative Party of Canada is on the verge of winning an ugly, expensive fight with its own members in an upscale Calgary riding as MP Rob Anders heads toward his second acclamation in less than a year.

An unprecedented move by the party's national council to deny voting rights to new members in Calgary West is curtailing any potential challenges to Anders in a court-ordered second nomination battle.

"The secret, as everyone knows, to winning a nomination is to be able to sell your supporters memberships and get them out to vote," said John Knox, one of 11 disgruntled Tories who have fought the party's unwavering loyalty to Anders from courtroom to courtroom since last August.

The rule - which gives ballots only to those who were party members in the middle of August last year - contrasts with every other Tory riding in Canada, where anyone who has held a membership for more than three weeks can vote at a party nomination.

At least two expected new entrants into the race will likely not bother.

(more)

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