A look at Phil Green's website

Phil Green was the Conservative Party candidate in Mississauga South in the last two elections, and on a whim I decided to Google his name and see if his old campaign website was still up. A look at http://www.philgreen.ca/ shows just a couple of photos, and a quick standard blurb. However, it is what this blurb says that is interesting:

"In 2006 the Conservative Party ruled that any candidate who had lost in the 2004 and 2006 federal campaigns could not run again without a waiver from Ottawa. It was my strong desire to build on the hard work we have done in Mississauga South over the past years--achieving the best Conservative result in Toronto and Mississauga--and once again have the honour of being a candidate in the next federal election. In the fall of 2006 I applied for this waiver. I was told by a Party official that the party would not allow me to be a candidate for nomination. No reasons were provided."

I was aware of the rule that Conservatives could only run twice and lose, but I didn't know about the waiver rule, or that Green had been denied without reason. I met Green a couple times while working on Szabo's campaign's in 2004 and 2006, and I found him to be a pretty decent guy. He ran a good couple of campaigns, particularly in 2006, when he came within 5% of winning the riding, he is a hard worker, fairly moderate, tri-lingual, and has a good solid background in environmental issues. Had he actually won the riding, he would have probably gone to cabinet, both because of his experience and for being the only Tory MP from the core GTA (Discounting Durham).

The only reasons I can think of vetoing the Conservative who came closest to winning in Mississauga would be because is probably too moderate, and too environmentally aware for the Harperites. Try having climate change deniers in the same cabinet as an environmental consultant and see what happens. The Harperites would probably prefer the anti-public school public school trustee Don Stephens to a moderate like Green. Something else Green adds in his website is also interesting:

"I believe that in this matter the Conservative Party has shown a cavalier attitude towards our political freedoms and its pledge of fair, transparent and democratic nominations."

Mississauga South Conservatives showing a cavalier attitude towards political freedoms and its fair, transparent and democratic nominations? Shocking, I tell you, I can't believe Mississauga South Conservatives would stand for tha...

Oh, right. Ok, everything makes sense now.