Quote:
Originally Posted by Bownesian
You know that Rob Anders is about as far from influence as any member of the government, right? He has been an MP for 11 years and has risen to the lofty heights of being the Chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee.
He is a bum in a seat who votes with the government on command. He is my MP (being a Bownesian, obviously) and while I know he was a grandstanding idiot is (has he done anything stupid in the last 6 or 7 years?), I have long since accepted the idea that we don't really have a representative democracy in the local sense but instead vote for leaders and party platforms first and direct representatives a distant second.
Though I have voted against him in the past (and have voted against his nomination several times), I made my peace with the idea that a vote for Anders is money towards the party whose platform I least disagreed with.
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I think that we need to stand up against parties nominating mediocre boobs in safe ridings as a general principle--because it decreases the overall talent pool in government. The Conservatives will never oust Anders because it makes no difference to them, and they'll run their most talented candidates in competitive ridings elsewhere.
I think Anders is a pernicious influence--just because I think that if we were in a truly open democracy, we could be represented by someone a whole lot better. The problem is that this is not a unique issue for Calgary West--it's something that affects our politics nationwide, and the result (especially with fewer and fewer competitive ridings) is a general drop in political talent across the country.
Rob Anders is just a symptom. He's not a bad guy (I knew him in University, actually) he just has no idea what he's doing and is woefully unqualified for the job he holds.