BC Conservative Director Bolts From Party

Monday, August 23, 2010 10:00 PM

It is with deep regret that I wish to inform you that I am resigning effective immediately from the Provincial Board of Directors as Director at Large, and canceling my membership in the party.

I have lost confidence in the leadership of the party and the direction it has chosen to follow.

I have been deeply concerned by the backroom dealings and the amount of power that has transferred into the hands of an unelected group of self ordained political brokers to guide the party. Those of us who were actually elected back in September are being trampled and moved out of the way in favour of appointed, unelected people who are now controlling the party. I would have thought the party would have learned its lesson from 2004 where operatives working for both the BC Liberals and the federal Conservatives came in and caused maximum disruption and prevented BC Unity from merging with the BC Conservative Party.

The Party is now dominated with mostly political appointments by the TAG group and their leader Randy White. The Provincial board has been taken over by those closely allied to the federal Conservative Party and their members currently involved in the BC Liberal Party.

I cannot and will not support this type of activity in the party. Some of our finest talent in the party is being marginalized because of their opposition to the HST. Chris Delaney is the most public figure in our party and the leadership regards him as though he is a liability to the party. His treatment by the TAG leader Randy White, President Wayne McGrath, and Conservative MP John Cummins can only be described as disrespectful and disingenuous. The one person who could point thousands of people to our party and has, with his involvement as a leader in the Fight HST organization, helped to demolish the BC Liberals, is considered by these unelected newcomers as not good enough to side with or mention his name in conjunction with the BC Conservative Party name. Shame!

I can no longer support a party that sides with the BC Liberals and the federal Conservative Party over the HST and over the people of BC. The people of BC have spoken and the party leadership in the BC Conservative Party will not listen. Pretending to listen is not listening. We all know where the HST policy is going to come from; it will be developed by federal Conservatives as a watered down version that still accepts the HST to make sure their political masters in Ottawa are satisfied. I know the people of BC will not approve.

The party is now in the hands of outside, unelected interests which contradicts one of our most important constitutional philosophies - representing the interests of British Columbian’s first above all others.

The party leadership considers working with failed BC Liberal politicians and federal Conservatives who supported the HST, over attracting the hundreds of thousands of people in BC who oppose the HST, and oppose those who gave it to us. I for one will not be part of watching the party be taken over by a group of people, only to see them bring forth the same type of top down, backroom, undemocratic politics we were trying to replace in the BC Liberal Party.

I believe the choices made by the leadership of the party, including the TAG leader Randy White and the Fed Cons will fail, and the BC Conservative Party will collapse into obscurity.

I will continue to work together with all others of good faith for the betterment of British Columbia to ensure BC stays in the hands of the people of BC, and out of the clutches of those who would use her for their own ends.

Regrettably,

Blake MacKenzie

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Posted on Monday, August 23, 2010 10:00 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Eagleone on August 23 2010 10:50 PM

An honorable man it appears. I always respect a man who will stand on principal and tell it the way it is.

Facts are that even with the HST collapse of the BC liberals, the conservatives would never get elected in BC provincially... they would just reelect the BC liberals with a vote split, and that I think has always been the plan.

What BC doesn't need is another monopolist party of insiders that are further to the corporatist agenda than even the BC liberals. The BC conservatives didn't have a winning brand to begin with trying to out flank the BC liberals on the right. BC wants to go to the center and not to the right or left....

What BC needs from my perspective, and will have someday (when the time is right, hopefully after recall), is a genuine middle class majority driven free enterprise coalition that wins over voters from stoic merit based universalist policies that focus on an equal opportunity for every citizen in this province to excel based on their own merits and investment of sweat and sacrifice. A coalition that recognizes the rights of individuals, the unique needs of families, the small business employment engine, and that has a plan to diversify the economy through local innovation and free enterprise inertia. An organization that promotes democracy both politically in the process, as well as economically in that as a governing organization it would govern for all British Columbian's best interest and not those of a special interest group or a class of people.

A coalition that opposes foreign corporate economic prostitution as a trickle down theory pushed by Wall Street bankster types that have an agenda to monopolize all economic activity through control of the resources and final transaction.

First the free enterprise coalition will need a workable First Principles Declaration, then it will need a system to protect the party from those we know will infiltrate it with finance for nefarious agenda's. Then this coalition will need the support of people that want to take back their province and our collective right to a true democracy where all stakeholders are represented.

Time Will Tell

Posted by: gus on August 23 2010 11:40 PM

Sounds to me like the real provincial liberals under Gordon Wilson. Of course, that party got scuttled and most people are still confused.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on August 24 2010 7:57 AM

An honourable man indeed!
He makes some valid points, and he may just save his own career because of it.
This is what suprises me about the Campbell cabinet and the back benchers.
Why do they continue to blindly follow Gordon Campbell and his inner circle?
(they are poltically dead to B.C.)
They could stand up for their constituents and possibly save their own political careers, but it seems they are choosing to go down with the captain!
What are we missing here?
Is it about maintaining the favour of the corporate power brokers to ensure what comes after political life?
What do they know that we don't?

Posted by: crabby on August 24 2010 8:28 AM

An honourable politician is as rare as Unicorns but this man and Blair Lekstrom have both earned my respect.

Blake also highlights what many of us know already, that backroom deals are the norm in politics, the legislature is merely a stage where they [politicians] can act, and create "Acts". The backroom dealing must stop.

I do see an emerging party on the horizon the 5th largest now (and moving into 4th place)that appear to have the qualities the people are looking for. This parties policies eradicate most of what ails the current system.

In the meantime current BC politics is more entertaining than Hockey!

Posted by: CEO on August 24 2010 3:28 PM

Kudos to Blake Mackenzie for taking the high road. He will be critized for pulling out and not standing up for the "Party".

However, he has called it the way he sees it and has taken a stand that many will not, even if they disagree with how things are going.

I have more respect for anyone who takes a stand for what they believe in and what they will not support. At least they have a bar that they will not go below. It seems that many of our political leaders don't even know what bar I am referring to. How sad.

Posted by: Palopu on August 24 2010 7:42 PM

If there is any vote splitting taking place in the next election, if the Conservatives run candidates, it will be splitting the Liberal vote, and making it easier for the NDP to win the election.

Liberal votes can and do move around, NDP votes rarely move. So dont expect any shift in NDP support.

I know people who came to BC from Sask in the late 40's and early 50's who voted for the old CCF party and now vote NDP. They never have and never will change their vote.

I expect in the next election you will see the following. Liberals, NDP, Greens, Conservatives, Independents. The vote will be split every whichway but loose. At the end of the day you will have some sort of a coalition, and the next election you will have a centre, or centre right, populist peoples party.

Fly in the ointment??? If there is a strong recall movement early in 2011, and if they are able to recall 12 Liberal MLA's then the NDP could form the Government by May or June of 2011. You would have to have 12 bye elections, however it would be tough for a re-called Liberal to win his seat back.

Expect major changes in 2011. If the Liberals were smart (and they are not) they would recind the HST Poste Haste and get back to the business of running the Province. If they spent the last few years of their mandate doing something besides lying and conniving, they might be able to rebuild their support.

Posted by: Eagleone on August 24 2010 8:00 PM

If the conservative do support this tax, then that is one thing, but clearly they should respect our democracy if they want our vote.

To back the tax is to say they support lies to get elected and hidden agenda surprises after the election... they support not giving voters the information they require to make an informed vote and thereby empower the democracy to be something more substantial than an uninformed endorsement. The people need to be informed of potential policy at election time so as to make an informed vote on what they are actually voting for... otherwise back room deals rule us and our vote.

Furthermore if the conservatives do indeed feel this is a good tax, then they should support the process of rescinding the tax, and then campaigning to have it implemented through the proper democratic process, or they aren't worth anyone's vote. They by default support the abuse of our democracy if it fits their agenda.

Realistically... I think we may be stuck with the HST until the agreement expires in five years unless the Vander Zalms court case goes ahead before then. What I am looking for is any politician that is talking about what to do after... obviously the PST needs to be brought back to balance the books when the HST is no longer... this has to be done to ensure we retain our provincial sovereignty on taxation issues as clearly the corporate lawsuit was a signal for all that once they can take our sovereign ability on the taxation issue out of our hands they will then abuse the process of taxation at the federal level to our detriment here in BC.

I would like to see politicians talking now about how they will reform the PST to make it a better tax that fairly takes into consideration all the stakeholders... as such the PST will have to deal with accountability for each item as it pertains to the tax, rather than sweeping drag nets of taxation as happened with the HST. If the politicians are not talking about how the PST will be reformed once the HST is rescinded then clearly they are being disingenuous and do not deserve our support one bit.

The hypocrisy for example from the ndp is is ripe on the HST issue. They must be laughing at their fortune by default, and yet they haven't done a single thing yet policy wise to show why they should be a benefactor to a liberal implosion on the HST issue.

Posted by: Palopu on August 24 2010 9:03 PM

We cannot allow the HST to stay in place.

This tax allows the Government to collect money everyday of the week from all the people without any representation, or responsibility. They will take in Millions of dollars every day, and not have to account for it or show a modicum of responsibility.

They will tax you on everything from asswipe to arsnic, and you will have nothing to say about it. It is a hideous tax, which Governments love and people hate.

This tax didnt stop European Countries from going broke. In fact I suggest that it helped them to borrow more, and therefore go broke quicker.

If we can kill this tax, then we can move on and start to get some reductions in taxes from the Municipal Governments.

We are already taxed to the max. We do not need anymore.

Posted by: Eagleone on August 24 2010 10:08 PM

Agreed....

Posted by: socredible on August 25 2010 7:38 AM

Absolutely agreed. We have to start somewhere, or the hand of government will just keep coming back for "more", we'll have less services than we have from them now, and they, and we, will all be further in debt than ever. Kill this tax, and force them to correct the bookkeeping that currently mis-represents increasing actual national wealth as ever expanding, unrepayable, financial indebtedness.