John Gormley is interviewing Chuck Cadman - first health: He's still on chemo, but not feeling too badly, and trying to rebuild his strength.
It's been a "wild week" for him. He's paying attention to the calls and emails, and the situation is volatile. Reserves his right to change position. Philosophically, with the Conservatives.
He's closely monitoring the views of constituents on this, to reflect their views in parliament.
His Conservative nomination was hijacked by someone who employed a "mass sign-up" of 1.500 members who haven't renewed. He doesn't blame Harper for not intervening, because he wasn't leader at the time. Party heirarchy was responsible. (Amen - see Grant Devine's nomination battle, which might have resulted in resulted in a Liberal coming up the middle had the riding not been so heavily Conservative in philosophy.)
Are the Conservatives making a mistake if they pull the plug? "Hard to say - it's volatile.. everything is so fluid it's hard to tell one day to the next." Mentions Guite, and what might happen when the publication ban is lifted on his testimony. Maybe wait until Gomery works out, at least until all the evidence is in. ... will hold off to make a decision until he's sure he's making the responsible one for Surrey North.... "I'll have to make up my mind sometime before the moment of voting" ... and there is an expectation of everyone being in the house - that may not happen, and with a day's notice, he may not be able to get to Ottawa from Vancouver. He also mentions the other two Conservatives who are ill.
He didn't tip his hand, which means he really hasn't decided, but I get the impression that it won't take much to convince him to vote alongside the Conservatives - revelations from Guite or the upcoming auditors report, for example.
I'm curious... why is it called hijacking if people signed up for the party? Even if not one person renewed their membership, isn't it only required in the Conservative party to be a member to vote on candidates? If he couldn't sign up enough new members himself, then it's just sour grapes on his part I think.
I have to respect the way he handled himself on the show and as an independent, I think he is acting with appropriate justification. I just hope that Martin doesn't go to Surrey North with an open bankbook to try to keep the government in place.
Cadman is the man in my riding. He had no idea that he had any competition for the Conservative Party, until this guy came out of nowhere with the 1500 and stole it days before the vote. He didn't know he needed to get all the signups. The candidate who did this is ethnically Sikh and the Sikh community is very large in Surrey. This riding would have gone conservative no question, but Cadman is so popular locally that they begged him to run anyway when he lost the candidacy. We voted him in because it was a dirty rotten trick that was pulled on him. It has almost soured me on the new CPC... almost. If Chuck hadn't run I would have voted Conservative.
No, Todd - it's not hijacking if the people who sign up are bona fide new members. It is if they're fake memberships, purchased with drug money... oh wait! That's the BC Liberals!
Shane,
I thought the basic tenant of political life was to not take anything for granted. If Cadman didn't bust his ass to get new memberships signed up and network extensively within a large ethnic group within his riding, that's his problem. If he 'didn't know' he needed to get new members signed up to assure his position as the candidate, then he didn't deserve to be the candidate.
If there's a problem with how people are elected to be candidates in the Conservative party, he should raise the issue up the flagpole and see if he can get support to change it. In the meantime, he shouldn't whine about being 'hijacked'.
Damn, just saw this on cbc.ca; I guess we're stuck with Pettigrew. The good news is the rest of the world isn't.
Pettigrew loses chance to head OAS
Last Updated Fri, 29 Apr 2005 16:13:38 EDT
CBC News
Kate, did he say anything about rejoining the party? I heard that John Reynolds has told him that he can have the Conservative nomination without a challange (with the riding's blessing) and run for us again.
God, I hate to say this, but I agree with Todd. Cadman knew exactly how the nomination system operates. He simply didn't do what he knew he had to do. I can't muster much sympathy for him, especially since he won the seat anyway.