March 22nd, 2005

Filed under:
Politics
5 Comments »

“I Met Preston Manning in a Dance Club”

As politically-aware Canadians will know, the Conservative Party of Canada’s convention wrapped up yesterday (or was it Sunday?). Stephen Taylor is a party member and former candidate for Kingston and the Islands in Ontario. He’s been blogging about the convention. He discusses the post-convention parties, where-in he writes the unlikely phrase that is this entry’s title:

Working my way through the crowd is a somewhat surreal experience as hill staffers, MPs, members of the press, young delegates and Preston Manning are all hanging out, dancing to Snoop Dogg’s ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’. So, this is where I meet, for the first time, one of our most influential political minds and greatest democratic reformers in Canadian history, Preston Manning.

Surreal, indeed. I’m no political scientist, but he’s going to have to back that “greatest democratic reformers” claim up before I buy it.

UPDATE: Todd has a good analysis of the convention.

Comments: 5 Responses so far

Sue
March 22nd, 2005
11:44 am

Heh. Yeah. The guy started another political party. Hardly a reform.

[Reply]

Andrea
March 22nd, 2005
2:34 pm

Was he dancing to Cotton Eye Joe? :)

For all that North Americans like to say we don’t believe in legacy and royalty, we sure elect otherwise. Ernest and Preston Manning. Paul Martins Jr and Sr. Al Gore Jr and Sr. The Bush bloc. The Kennedy-Schwarzenneggers (changing parties, even!). And Justin Trudeau sure has been ramping up his own profile, lately.

[Reply]

Andrea
March 22nd, 2005
2:36 pm

Speaking of politics, the Google ad on the right sends you to a page where you can thank Tony Blair for supporting the US military agenda.

[Reply]

Stephen
March 22nd, 2005
5:12 pm

A bit of a hyperbole perhaps (for now). I was trying to contrast ‘Canadian statesman’ and ‘Dance Party’.

anyways…

I think that we’ll see a lot of Manning’s initial efforts and ideas for reform come to fruition now that Canadians can see new, cool and professional CPC (now ‘hidden agenda’ free)

[Reply]

Rob Cottingham
March 22nd, 2005
9:51 pm

Heh. I had the same reaction (with a nod to Stephen’s acknowledgement of hyperbole). In terms of what Manning’s actually achieved, it’s a pretty big stretch. And even if you consider the scope of what he’s proposed, he still isn’t in the same league as, say, the Famous Five (warts and all), Baldwin and Lafontaine or John Diefenbaker.

[Reply]

Add a comment