The Letter

The letter we released:

The back room boys in Ottawa have appointed Lisa Raitt as the Conservative candidate for our riding. The decision was announced at a closed door meeting that you as a member were entitled to attend, but were never notified of. As long time members of the riding association we are opposed to this action and do not support her candidacy.

Ms. Raitt has no political or campaign experience. She has no name recognition within our riding or any history of community involvement. She has just recently joined our party, has never been involved in this riding association or participated in any of our fund raising events. She is nothing more than a political opportunist very similar to Garth Turner and we all know what happened after we selected that star candidate.

Ms. Raitt is a government bureaucrat who was appointed to her current government patronage position as CEO of the Toronto Port Authority by the previous Liberal government. The TPA under Ms. Raitt’s direction has consistently lost money at taxpayers’ expense and she was involved in the controversial bridge contract and linked to a scandal associated with that contract.

The fact that Mrs. Raitt refused to put her name forward and go through the nomination process and seek your support, as the other interested candidates had agreed to demonstrates that she has no respect for the democratic process or you as a grass roots member of our party. She instead chose to accept another patronage appointment. If elected her loyalty and commitment would be to her masters in Ottawa and not to the people of Halton, something that Garth Turner will make known to the voters of Halton. He will portray himself as the voice of Halton and Ms. Raitt as the voice of Ottawa. This was confirmed when Ms. Raitt refused to answer any questions at the meeting on the instructions of her political master from Ottawa who was present.

This decision was made by the same party officials who have been named in the Chuck Cadman attempted bribery affair, the “In and Out” election fund scandal and who were behind the decision to kick Garth Turner out of the party for speaking out on behalf of his constituents. This decision is contrary to the democratic process we as Conservatives believe in and goes against our party platform. It is a slap in the face to our Board of Directors who for the past 2 years have been working hard on your behalf to find qualified and suitable candidates to seek the nomination and who have for the past 18 months been asking HQs to allow us to hold a nomination meeting. It is also a slap in the face to you as a riding association member who has supported our association during these troubled times and who has now been denied the opportunity to have a say as to who should represent us in this election.

As long time Conservatives of this riding association we are asking that you not support this candidate, when called upon to donate money or accept a lawn sign we ask that you say no and tell the caller why you are refusing. The party has shown a total disrespect for you by denying you the right to select your candidate and you should not be expected to donate money and support a candidate that could not be bothered to seek your support. Let us send a message to the back room boys in Ottawa that they can not hijack this riding association and get away with it. Losing this riding will not affect the overall result of the election but it will send a message to the spin doctors and back room boys at party headquarters, a message they need to hear loud and clear.