Move Along. Nothing To See Here.

Newton's third law states: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

But that should only apply to physics.

We see the headlines on an almost daily basis; Liberal skewed print media reeling in the catch of the day from Conservative waters of folly and discontent. And, while they toss back some of the smaller fish from time to time, there can be no mistake, they're no fans of "catch and release" and they're all too quick to have us for shore lunch and mount the trophies. Just witness these recent trumpetings:

Tories split over Harper
Foursome wants Harper gone
Television ads show Harper's losing the plot
Dissident Tories want Harper out
Big shakeup in Stephen Harper's office
Harper Well Done, Martin Over Easy
Harper loses another Quebec staff member

They should come as no surprise and, while they're met with predictable chagrin, I'm never short on amazement to the degree of kneejerk and panic displayed in the Conservative membership.

And for what? A little media bias? It's nothing new and it's not going away. Robert Lorne Stanfield, the "best prime minister Canada never had" once joked that he could walk on water and the next day's headlines would read: Bob Stanfield Can't Swim.

Agreed, today's Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition could use some tweaking in the communications department. But isn't that what just transpired? The fact that Harper recognized an area for improvement and acted on it could only speak to his executive strengths. Instead, we're hearing about the sour grapes; and old, rotten ones at that. The four signatories on the "Quebec Letter", as it turns out, were Stronach loyalists in the 2004 leadership race. They are a) not representative of even a significant minority in Quebec and b) flogging a now irrelevant matter: Belinda's gone and she ain't comin' back.

But does that even require a response from Stephen Harper? Not in my books. Nor do the shakeups, layoffs, or departures themselves. In fact, we should all follow his example and shut up about it. Perhaps then, Conservative fortunes will improve in the polls. What Canadian is going to choose a party rife with disharmony and embroiled in controversy over internal minutia? They're looking for leadership. And not just from Harper. They want it from all of us. If there's anything I can tip my hat to the Liberal party for it's that they know how to keep their internal matters internal. And that, alone, speaks to leadership and discipline.

During his leadership victory speech in 2004, Harper said "The tired, old, corrupt Liberal party is cornered like an angry rat. They are going to attack us like never before." And they did just that. And we let 'em escape the clutches of electoral defeat. It doesn't matter who did or didn't do what during the campaign to let that happen, either at the riding or the national level. What does matter is that we don't repeat the process. Maintaining our internal civility while promoting the policy positions adopted in March, 2005 is a major key to us convincing the electorate that we are for real, platform releases or no platform.

Stephen Harper's stewardship of the Conservative Party has been just fine, thank you. 99 seats without a policy convention? Just imagine. This year we left Montreal with a solid, workable policy document and an 84% leadership approval and since the last election, the Conservatives have out fundraised the Liberals by millions of dollars through a margin of tens of thousands more donors - something we continue to excel at. So, I'd be careful about reacting to recent polls.

Polls can be pushed. Numbers can be crunched. News can be spun. And headlines.. misleading.

The Conservative Party of Canada has come a long way in a short time and impatience will only prove stultifying. It's time we stopped explaining ourselves and got back to promoting the road to a better Canada.

Hey, Look At Me! I'm A Party Organizer!

In reading the September 7th news coverage of the OLO staff changes, specifically in the Globe And Mail, and the subsequent blog activity that skewered Toronto "party organizer" Carol Jamieson in a matter of hours, I couldn't help but take stock in my own importance to the Conservative Party of Canada. Indeed, I not only proudly carry a membership card, they also sent me an embossed, gold-letter Sustaining Donor card. How cool is that? However, to my dismay, I feel dwarfed by the towering impression of Carol Jamieson's "party organizer" marquee level of influence that she can seemingly wield at the drop of a hat or, at least, the firing of a few employees who are much closer to the inner sanctum than she.

"How does one become a party organizer", I kept thinking to myself. Lemme see.. Jamieson sits on the Board of Directors of the Etobicoke-Lakeshore Conservative EDA. I'm on the Ottawa West - Nepean board (listed is my legal name). She doesn't appear to occupy a chair and is simply listed as a Director at Large. I have no chair, except for the one under my ass at the monthly meetings. I am, however, the webmaster for the association's website. I'm not a geek, by any measure, but I know enough low-end tricks that I took the responsibility on with a passion and a purpose to re-design the site and launch a youth subdomain. In addition, I provide regular E-News mailings to the membership to keep them updated. ( Read our latest mailing here.)
But, still, no news outlet has ever looked me up for a comment on party affairs. Hell, I have friends at the Ottawa Citizen and they know my phone number.

My quest shall continue for the coveted, all-important, "party organizer" moniker.

To the cognoscenti, it comes as no great headline that politics is not glamorous. Mrs. Woody (a VP on our board as well as on the Provincial board) and I spent close to 5 hours yesterday with roughly 25 other volunteers, assembling lawn signs for our candidate John Baird. Inside the house, another half dozen dedicated friends finished stuffing envelopes for an event mailing. It was a job several of us didn't quite accomplish well into Thursday night. We managed to assemble 2000 signs and we still have more to do this Wednesday. Yes, we're getting ready for an election and, Newsflash, that writ is coming sooner than you think. Don't ask me how I know because I'm not a "party organizer". You'll just have to trust me.

It's been my experience, both in business and politics, that a membership body or an assembled staff comes with its measure of passengers and tourists. Not everyone dares roll up their sleeves and gets some snot in their nose. I've been involved in many efforts where the usual suspects will show up late and leave early just to be seen by others, while contributing the bare minimum. I also know people who honestly believe there's a job waiting for them at the end of a successful election campaign. They not only believe it, they expect it. Others use their board memberships merely to pad their resumes and validate their egos. As a functioning member of a campaign team and an EDA whose sole mandate is to create a condusive environment to win an election, I recognize this type of character but must work with it maintain our forward progress.

In my estimation, the Carol Jamiesons of this country are a liability for our party for two reasons:

She not only mis-represented her true party status to The Globe And Mail or she allowed that assumption to prevail and she spoke out of turn and her comments were uninformed. As an association director, it is unacceptable to criticize your party openly unless you're prepared to resign. With regard to her inference that this is an Alliance objective to take over the OLO (Good God, people! Enough already!!!), she may have since come to understand that at least two individuals had strong Alliance connections. My friend and former OWN candidate Sean Casey worked for years for Randy White while David Quist, a candidate in BC, also had Alliance ties. As a former PC, myself, I have little time for people with the "us vs them" mentality and I share a majority sentiment. But, again, one idiot allows us to make front page for all the wrong reasons.

So, while Stephen Taylor and Angry were duly and apologetically out of line from their initial take on the issue, the question of Jamieson's standing and her actions in that regard linger on.

As for the label of "party organizer". I sat for an hour yesterday in a Manotick Tim Horton's discussing details of an upcoming Ontario PC fundraiser with my good friend Lisa Macleod and others. And, come to think of it, I did move stuff around the garage to organize the storage of the lawn signs.

Hmm! Looks like I'm a party organizer after all.