What Coalition?

2011 Federal Election 47 Comments

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PORT MOODY-WESTWOOD-PORT COQUITLAM
Stewart McGillivray (Liberal)
Age: 19
City: Vancouver
Employment: Vancouver Trolley Company
Education: majoring in political science at UBC
Years in riding: 0

47 Replies to “What Coalition?”

  1. 19? Well, if he’s lived there for 19 years, I guess that the press could technically describe him as a “long-time resident”.
    He works for the Vancouver Trolley Company. With that background, Transport Canada will have a new minister when Mr. McGillivray wins his seat.

  4. Your coalition conspiracy angle would only make sense if the NDP actually posed a threat to the incumbent Conservatives, or if equally strong NDP and Liberal candidates risked splitting the vote, leaving a weaker Conservative candidate to leap-frog to the top.
    Alas, Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam is a safe Conservative seat. Considering James Moore has won this riding for the past four elections by a margin of at least 14% — 32% in 2008 — it’s not really a story that the Liberals are running an eager out-of-towner with no chance of victory. The NDP candidate is also a first-timer, and based on the party’s recent results, he too has no chance.
    This is about giving a young Liberal supporter with obvious political aspirations some valuable experience in running in an election. Nice try, though.

  5. Check again. He doesn’t live there at all.
    PORT MOODY-WESTWOOD-PORT COQUITLAM is different from Vancouver? I did not know that. Everything on that coast is all hash bongs and hippies to me anyway, so I had no idea.

  6. Re the NDP candidate – What exactly is a product evangelist?
    Re the coalition – The signs for the liberal candidate in my riding are more orange than red. Things that make you go hmmm….

  7. Davenport nails it.
    The only thing this demonstrates is a eagerness to spin anything as evidence of a coalition.

  10. What exactly is a product evangelist?
    What this is can vary: often it’s a marketing or sales position where someone promotes a product, service, or a general methodology, technique, or approach to performing some process. For example, a product evangelist for a company making, say, a word processor, would write whitepapers, do product demos, promote the product at tradeshows, and generally be a spokesperson for the product.
    Their technical expertise can vary — sometimes this person is just a talking head from sales without any real technical background. In other cases, the evangelist has a solid technical background in their industry and can do real and productive work, and their job is to show others how to do real and productive work with the company’s product. The evangelist may often serve in “professional services” or consulting roles to help companies deploy the technology in question.

  11. batman, the only thing nailed is Davenport’s thumb.
    If the Liberals had any realistic expectation of winning this election by themselves, they’d be building their organization with viable candidates.
    In poltics, one election is a lifetime. No political party uses an election to prepare for 20 or 30 years down the road when Mr. McGillivray might be viable!

  12. Anne: “The signs for the liberal candidate in my riding are more orange than red. ”
    That’s interesting. Until you said that I think I remember seeing a Liberal sign that was a bit orangish with touches of green. I will check again in case I am mistaken, but something to watch for. There are BIG red Liberal signs in areas where they think they are strong. (E.G. McGuinty’s riding — actually there are McGuinty signs all over Ottawa and I can’t imagine his riding is that big.

  13. Yep, Ig-gore wants Canadian to “Walk this way”, all the same way, just like good little socialist sheeple.
    The only problem is that Ig-gore flicks the high voltage switch at every townhall “lab” he haunts but the Liberal monster of yore remains on the table…Dead…No signs of resurrection…The stench of rotting social ideology growing ever more.
    In the meantime, the sweet smell of MAJORITY Conservative is getting stronger everyday…

  14. Rick: Every party runs paper candidates in riding they can’t win. For example, note the candidate Harper is running in Beauséjour against Dominic LeBlanc.
    Experience might be why this kid is running, but the Liberals probably didn’t have anyone else willing to do it. You’re right that they don’t care about building the party 20-30 years down the road but giving someone experience doesn’t hurt.

  15. Maybe no conspiracy here.
    The other theory is that the Liberals are just poorly organized and not really ready for an election they just forced.

  17. Thanks Lickmuffin.
    I thought it was probably along those lines. But I did find the “evangelist” reference interesting.
    I probably would use “expert”, “marketer”, “salesperson”. To me, evangelist has religious undertones, and the dictionary confirms it. The only reference to evangelist/evangelical without religious definitions is the unwavering support of a cause, not peddling a product for profit.
    It just does not seem like an appropriate application of the word.

  18. LindaL – You must be in Ottawa. If you’re in Pierre Poilievre’s riding (Barrhaven, Merivale, Riverside South), take a look at Ryan Keon’s signs – they are more orange than red.

  19. (Kingsbury also wasn’t a youth of [virtually] no fixed address you’ll note.)

  20. andy: Why are you going back to 2006? In 2008, the Libs got less than 15% of the vote in Port-Moody. And now it’s a riding held by a cabinet minister who cleared 50% comfortably in 2008. Even the NDP is running a paper candidate in Port-Moody.
    It’s been James Moore’s riding since it was created in 2004. If the Libs and the NDP don’t have a strong candidate willing to take him on, they run a paper candidate. Embarrassing for the Liberals that this is the only person they could get. Craig may be right that they were under-prepared.

  23. “The other theory is that the Liberals are just poorly organized and not really ready for an election they just forced.”
    Craig
    Wait ’till the 2 bucks a vote subsidy ends…
    Bwahahahahahah!!!

  24. But he sure is qualified:
    “Volunteer work: Volunteers for Vancouver South Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, the UBC Political Science Students’ Association, UBC’s Alma Mater Society and the Arts Undergraduate Society.”

  25. I went back in the deep, dark mists of 5 centuries, er, years ago of 2006 because that was the first election date I thought of.
    But looking at 2008 I see the Grits still ran a real candidate, Ron McKinnon, who was an adult businessman from the riding who was still the president of the Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam Federal Liberal Association as late as December 2010. (I don’t know if he still is now in 2011.)

  26. batman at 10:13 AM: “You’re right that they don’t care about building the party 20-30 years down the road but giving someone experience doesn’t hurt.”
    By that time he’ll be a conservative, so the experience will come in handy.

  27. Kootenay-Columbia riding: NDP candidate ran as a Libel 2 elections ago. The Libels have not nominated a candidate to date. Historically the NDP run 2nd in this riding with the CPC polling about 55%. However, the existing MP is retiring so the CPC have to get a new member elected. If the opposition ever had a chance it is now. I don’t find it a coincidence that the Libels are not trying very hard!

  31. I work in the tech industry, anne, I’ll second (third?) Rick and Lickmuffin. It’s a common term.
    It also says rather a lot about the person who holds it, IMHO, as in every case I’ve seen the person is required to support, push, promote and generally laud the product as the Cure For All Ills, regardless of its applicability or fitness for any particular problem.

  32. Small Dead Sacrificial Liberal Lamb.
    Yep, run a minimal campaign, to net out a large benefit from the vote subsidy. Same operating method that allows Elizabeth May to jet about the country on her Green tours.
    End the vote subsidy!

  33. GIS, geographic information systems, is one of the least flaky of the flaky University programs. “GIS is the merging of cartography, statistical analysis and database technology.” It can be quite useful. For instance if a developer wants to know where to locate a new supermarket he will likely turn to a GIS specialist for information on demographics, access, and maybe even the physical geography of prospective sites.

  34. GIS, geographic information systems, is one of the least flaky of the flaky University programs. “GIS is the merging of cartography, statistical analysis and database technology.” It can be quite useful. For instance if a developer wants to know where to locate a new supermarket he will likely turn to a GIS specialist for information on demographics, access, and maybe even the physical geography of prospective sites.

  35. Agreed GIS is not some art history program. It’s a serious program but still this guy won’t win unless the other guys die and even then it’d be pretty close.

  38. Kate finds the NUTTY PROFESSOR a new role!!
    I can see it now:
    Eyore: “Walk this way”
    Visitor: “Do I have to have a stick up my a$$ too?”

  41. RHTT
    I take heart in your optimism, but I’m still a little skeptical myself as snatching defeat from the jaws of victory seems to happen often enough. That said, I think it was very wise of the Conservatives to play the “coalition” card early on. In my view, it has effectively defanged the “ Conservative majority” scare tactic later on in the campaign. That’s one less obstruction the Conservatives can stub their toe on.JMO
    As I said yesterday, it appears to me that the Liberals have made a tactical choice to streamline their quality candidates to ridings they feel they’re competitive. I’d imagine this is to focus resources where they’re trying to hang-on, and some choice NDP or Bloc ridings they feel competitive in. As far as I can tell, there is a very blatant move to a western alienation agenda from the Grits; which was predictable by the way. Interestingly enough, the ‘majority’ might come down to the west coast time zone ridings. I wonder if the people in Vancouver and Victory realize they live in western Canada!?!
    “The other theory is that the Liberals are just poorly organized and not really ready for an election they just forced.”
    Craig

  44. I live in Port Moody and I am so insulted that the liberals wouldn’t just run a fencepost with hair instead of this 19 year old. I include the Greens as well. This is why I support ending the taxpayer subsidy for votes. This illustrates the arrogance of the libs. I’m not the only one that finds this type of thing despicable.

  45. In order to get the taxpayer’s money via political subsidies they must run canadates in ridings, doesn’t matter if they live there or not they just need a warm body to get the OUR MONEY.

  46. “Igor,I need a brain,not any brain,but a normal brain”.

    “Yes ‘mo’ster,I understand,I will stay away from the graves in Ottawa”.

    “Iggy,you must go to Alberta”.

  47. Vancouver Trolley Company, even the owner could NEVER pass a drivers drug test. The office just reeks of DOPE.
    When I went in for a job interview, I walked in then walked out, bunch of potheads.

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