"Gotcha!" politics... I knew this day would come

I personally like Warren's views on times like this ... by all means guys, keep on firing your attacks my way. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I suggest you take another look at his books... these amatures could learn a few things from him.

Anyway, I guess it's time to answer a few questions that have been hanging out there over the last few days...

Why have I kept my identity under wraps on this blog? Because, and I'll repeat... "All opinions expressed here are solely my own, and not necessarily reflective of the views of the Party, its leadership, its general membership, my EDA, or my local Conservative candidate". So there.

I chose a long time ago that I would not use any position I held for my own purposes or agendas. When I serve the people of Canada, I do so at their pleasure, and as such, I have a responsiblity to ensure that their veiws are reflected properly. On that basis, I've never indicated any position that I've held on this blog. Yes, I have taken on certain responsibilities over the years in an effort to serve my fellow Canadians to the best of my ability, but I've done so in a manner that reflects the general views of the membership of whatever EDA I've been a part of... and there have been several different EDA's over the life of this blog. You can choose to believe me or not, but that's the truth.

You see, the Conservative Party of Canada is indeed a "Big Tent" party.  I've worked with lots of folks in various capacities... some who are Christians, some Muslims, atheists, agnostics, you name it.  Why are we, all people with differing opinions, working together as we do?  In an effort to make a better Canada for everyone... and not just for a select few, like the Liberal Party of Canada seems to do.

As I'm sure you've noticed by now, my views are not exactly "mainstream"... not even within my own party, despite what some of the liars may try to tell you. As such, I've never openly disussed my real identity. My reasoning is somewhat similar to Canadian Cynic's... I'd prefer not to have any nutbars showing up on my front door. But despite my best efforts, and thanks to some help from Liberal bloggers, I've already recieved one piece of hate mail. Not openly identifying myself has also allowed me to express the opinion of the 5%-10% of the Canadian population who describe themselves as "Evangelical"... people who believe the Bible in a more literal manner, and who view the political realm from that worldview. That worldview, of course, not in step with ANY of the major political parties in Canada. As a member of one of the major parties, and as a Bible-believing Christian, I wanted to be able to express my views, and the views of tens of thousands of other Canadians, in an open manner such as this... views that sometimes aren't welcome in any of the parties, and yet are held my members of both the Conservative and Liberal parties.

For the record, I've never "hidden" my identity. I've just never discssed it openly on my blog, and have been "hiding in plain sight", as it were. That's why I've always been comfortable enough to post my photo. In posting my photo, several local Liberals have IDed me, and I've never attempted to hide anything from them. I've also never had a problem revealing my identity to trustworthy people, including several promanent Liberal bloggers... Jason Cherniak, Warren Kinsella, CalgaryGrit, Stephen Taylor, Joanne Tintor, Dr. Roy, David Graham of cdlu and the Liblogs admin, etc. These are respectful individuals, who are able to rise above the "gotcha" smear politics from which I have sought to stay out of by hiding my identity. They're folks who I felt were able to rise above the partisan bickering, and actually dicuss ideas, and even work together towards a common goal. It was my pleasure to work together with Jason Cherniak and David Graham towards defeating MMP during the previous Ontario election. Several of us, I mean myself and several Liberals at a local Liberal event some weeks ago, were having fun talking about that. Wouldn't it be nice to see more of that on the blogs...

But, of course, I knew that one day, one of those "GOTCHA!" types would figure it all out, and would seek to try and stick my views to someone else. Congrats to Jeff Davidson for confirming my cynical outlook of most bloggers, on all ends of the spectrum.

So, thanks to good old gutter politics, here's my two cents to set the record straight, one last time... my views are my own. They do not reflect the views of the Party, my local EDA, nor anyone else in my general vicinity. I never have used any position I've held for my own purposes, or to further my own agendas. Any position I have held has been solely in the interest of serving my fellow Canadians to the best of my ability... and most of it, believe it or not, is about little more than taking care of all the paperwork.

By the way... some have asked why I refer to my location as being in "the GTA". For most Canadians, or my international readers of which I have several regulars, Toronto is the nearest major city. I've pretty much always lived within the sphere (and smog) of Toronto, and when people ask me where I'm from, I pretty much reply with, "I've grown up in and around Toronto". As such, I still consider myself a "GTAer".

Hope that clears a few things up. Now back to real life, where I've been for the past week or so, and from which I've been so rudely awakened...