Guelph by-election in today's blogs

Being an electoral junkie, I've got a bunch of tabs on my browser set to various sources for info on the upcoming by-elections... namely the one in Guelph. CalgaryGrit threw in his two cents on that one today, calling that race "The most intriguing of the four" by-elections that are likely to be called soon. Who am I to argue with the likes of CG? (actually, I sent him a note saying we should plan a non-partisan by-election blogstravaganza when the writ drops, as I'm sure plently of us bloggers will be dropping by Guelph, since it's not to far from interested GTA and KW bloggers)

Anyway, of course CG's analysis is somewhat biased, praising Valeriote as "a lawyer with lots of community involvement". No arguement there, but he could have just as easily said of Kovach, "a city coucilor with lots of community involvement", instead of mocking her with the photo he chose of her. (when there are far better photos on her website to choose from... but of course, he's wanting to show his guy in a better light, so you can't really fault him for that)

All that aside though, it's the comments on his post that are the most interesting... someone just dropped this one at 12:32pm, and it mentions a few things I've heard more than once about the current state of the Liberal Party in Guelph... but never had the substance on which to post about it.

Anonymous said...

You forgot the controversy surounding Valeriote's nomination, which made the national press, and should be more important to Liberals.

The Liberal Party is split in half, long time volunteers and 1300 new members at least 300 of which were cut off by LPCO, backed Marva Wisdom, the backbone of the Liberal Party in Guelph.

Marva has been called by more than one person the best loved person in the Liberal Party. LPCO decided to screw her. Liberals in Guelph haven't forgotten that.

Chamberlain was running around Ottawa telling people Guelph didn't want a black women to be their MP. Liberals in Guelph haven't forgotten that.

Another female running for nomination in Ontario had to get a court ordered injunction against the LPCO for cutting off her memberships and eventually won her nomination. Wisdom should have done the same thing.

Liberals in Guelph haven't forgotten that.

Valeriote by the way has not done much for the community, catholic school board trustee for a few years pales in comparison to Kovacs and Wisdom's community involvement.

Honestly, the Liberals don't have a hope in Guelph, not with that candidate.

Guelph likes women. Kovacs is infinately better known in the community and will pull right leaning Liberals. King is a well liked, well known national celebrity and native who will pull the left leaning Liberals.

Guelph has voted with the government every election except the last one for decades, more consistently than any other ridings except four.

The Conservatives, if smart, which I believe they are, probably will go in June for Guelph as Valeriote's base is Catholic teachers who will be too busy and students would be less likely to vote Conservative.

The Conservatives will win.

12:32 PM

This is all news to me... I've heard rumblings of it on a couple Liberal blogs from time to time, and there was something awhile back about Gerard Kennedy's possible involvement during the nomination process, but nothing since then. I'd also heard that there was some bad blood amongst the Guelph Liberals during the Martin years, as Chamberlain, the retired Liberal MP for Guelph, had backed Martin during his not-so-clandestine war with Chretien, and was subsequently passed over when Martin became PM... who then promoted her assistant, Marva Wisdom, to a prominant position within the Liberal Party apperatus. Some said that Chamberlain backed current Liberal candidate, Frank Valeriote, just to get even with her former assistant.

Does anyone have any further info to shed some light on this? Or is this just a random rant from someone with no substance behind it? The only reason I'm asking is because I've heard several times now that there's some bitterness in the Liberal camp, but never had any real substance to back it up... hence the reason I've never posted it until now, when I hear it again, this time with a little more detail.

Anyone else hearing anything?