Stelmach boots Boutilier from caucus

[First Lady]

Stelmach boots Boutilier from caucus

Fort McMurray MLA Guy Boutilier is "shocked and disappointed" after being kicked out of the Tory caucus by Premier Ed Stelmach late Friday during a phone conversation.

"I think it's a sad day for democracy when an MLA gets thrown out for speaking on behalf of his constituents," Boutilier said Saturday morning.
""He (Stelmach) said 'you're out, you're not welcome at caucus on Tuesday.' I asked to meet caucus but he refused.

"I always thought you got to face your accuser, but the premier categorically refused to meet me or let me meet the members of caucus I've served with for 12 years."

Stelmach also dumped Boutilier from his Treasury Board post. "The premier said I breached confidentiality but that is not true."

"He said I should talk to the Speaker and they'd find a seat for me as an independent."


http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/St...743/story.html

Stelmach probably hopes this all blows over by Monday. Either way; one less PC MLA and one new independent, now free to speak his mind and represtent his constituents.

[TurnedTheCorner]

lol Alberta politics.

[Slava]

Pretty pathetic really.

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by Slava

Pretty pathetic really.

Which part? And how so?

[Azure]

Originally Posted by First Lady

Which part? And how so?

That you have to tow the party line ALL the time, or the leader kicks you out.

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by Azure

That you have to tow the party line ALL the time, or the leader kicks you out.

... and not be able to speak out for his constituents.... I agree.

But Slava and I rarely agree....

[habernac]

Guy is an ass, but Farmer Ed has his head stuffed so far up a certain body cavity, nothing surprises me.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by First Lady

... and not be able to speak out for his constituents.... I agree.

But Slava and I rarely agree....

Mark your calendar though....we agree! I think its pathetic that he gets booted from caucus when his constituency association has come out in support, and more importantly because the guy is standing up for what his riding needs/wants.

I would be saying the same thing if this was the Liberals, NDP and of course WRA treating a sitting member this way.

[Dion]

Stelmach has to go!

[First Lady]

More on this from CTV "It's a sad day for Alberta"

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loc...ub=CalgaryHome

[First Lady]

I have been debating this with MLA Jonathon Denis on twitter..... this is last thing he said to me.

@wildrosejane well, I read your comments and like some things you've had to say. I'd just ask for the same courtesy, that's all.

This was my response;

@JonoMLA I promise, I will be a lot nicer when you are on the right team. LOL

[Azure]

Originally Posted by First Lady

... and not be able to speak out for his constituents.... I agree.

But Slava and I rarely agree....

I think you would find that most people on CP, regardless of political viewpoints, would agree that this is ridiculous.

I just hope the WRA doesn't ever go down this round. So, until you do you will have my vote.

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by Azure

I just hope the WRA doesn't ever go down this round. So, until you do you will have my vote.

Down this round? Man you must be drinking as much as I have this eve.

[bcb]

The fact is, Stelmach is unaccountable.
He can throw teachers in front of the Human Rights Commissions, raise (then lower) taxes on booze and smokes, institute soviet-style minimum drink prices SIMPLY to appease (and tick off) various groups at different times, and he knows it won't matter.

In the end, he's still the one with 70+ seats in the legislature.

Here's the problem (for me at least). I have always been a PC supporter, but since bill 44 directly impacts me as a teacher, I've been so annoyed that I let my PC membership lapse, and am not sure I can vote for them next election.

I agree with 90% of what the WRA had in it's platform (at least before the last election), but when it came to 'fixing' the unbroken education system, it looked like they were proposing some sort of American No Child Left Behind Act (More standardized testing, less money etc).

So as of now, to me, WRA are scary.

So First Lady, I know you like to gauge opinion for your party, and I know I am way off topic now, but I'll tell you this much: There are a lot of my colleagues who feel the same as I do. Perhaps if you made your party palatable to those who actually work with students (as opposed to bigwigs in the Fraser Institute), you'd have a heck of a lot more votes.

PS, Contrary to popular belief, most teachers aren't socialists.

[flamesfever]

Originally Posted by Dion

Stelmach has to go!

The Stelmach government need a leadership review ASAP.

[Ford Prefect]

Three more years of Stelmach's band of jolly ranchers before we can do anything about them. Alberta could be pretty screwed up by then.

[Canuck-Hater]

Worse than Klein, but not by much.

[Kjesse]

My knee jerk reaction was that this was a poor move by Stelmach, but really, this is how our provincial and federal systems work... you have to step into line like a good soldier publicly, but while in caucus you can criticize the government all you want.

Its more of the same...this kind of move is not unique to Stelmach and is in fact common both provincially and federally.

I'd be interested to hear Jane, how you think a WRA government could stick together and be a viable government if it didn't punish its members for straying from the party line...

This is a pretty major issue for his constituency, so he probably didn't have much of a choice but to spout off publicly.

I think Boutilier did the right thing. And while I don't like what Stelmach did, I understand why he had to.

[mariners_fever]

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

Three more years of Stelmach's band of jolly ranchers before we can do anything about them. Alberta could be pretty screwed up by then.

Actually, worse. we are not legally obligated to be subjected to an election until 2013.

Originally Posted by Delgar

I'd be interested to hear Jane, how you think a WRA government could stick together and be a viable government if it didn't punish its members for straying from the party line...

i think it depends on who wins the leadership race. if danielle smith wins, then we look at a change. we look at someone who respects her caucus and their points of view before it escalates into something of this scale. what has happened here isn't the fact that you can't disagree with stelmach, stelmach has simply become so insecure about his current positioning that he has no tolerance or strength to actually dialogue with the members of his party that were prominent players during the klein years. he is simply trying too hard to try and make people forget about ralph because he was wildly popular at one time, essentially being too blind to see that he shouldn't concern himself with it because klein's popularity was decreasing anyways. the only people he'll allow to dissent in caucus are those who are in his innermost circle.

think about it, sure boutilier went public, but probably because stelmach mishandled it in private caucus. you are right, caucus is the forum to disagree, but do you think other leaders who haven't had to remove members from caucus were never disagreed with? the problem is this government is out of touch. stelmach would also see less feedback in caucus if his member's believed publicly the party was acting properly, or if he did indeed listen to the majority of his caucus.

ie, i went to the pork producers of alberta pork lunch at the macdougall center a couple weeks ago. the lunch began at noon on the lawn, and the kicker was that there was a PC caucus meeting in the macdougall center that convened for lunch. only one PC mla attended. he made a speech that basically amounted to "we know there's a problem right now for pork producers. we don't know what we're going to do yet, but golly gee, we're going to do something." then two MLAs (including lindsay blackett, champion of bill 44) showed up once the actual program was over, took food as it was being taken down, and left immediately.

absolutely deplorable. agriculture, while clearly not as big as energy, is still a BIG part of alberta. truth is, not that i harken back to the days of ralph as our answer, that during the bse scare in 2003 that killed ranchers in alberta, ralph and a large member of PC mlas attended beef on a bun lunches everywhere.

or take bill 44 as an example, well over 50 members of PC caucus brought it to stelmach to extend positive rights and what people can and should be able to do, he and his inner circle didn't like it and flipped it around to protect negative rights and to restrict people's actions and beliefs.

stelmach doesn't want caucus dissention and apparently will not tolerate it with boutilier's ousting, but yet he doesn't want to get along with his caucus or their concensus. of course boutilier's mad, in a time of recession, a spending project that was economically prudent in his own riding that could have saved money was torched. he probably did try handling it properly in caucus and the 'no' he received from stelmach was probably rude and undiplomatic enough that it sent him to the moon.

good politicians can say no and still have people follow them and build concensus. having met danielle smith, she is incredibly capable of this, and that is the wild rose's only chance. if dyrholm wins the leadership. erm. well. let's just call him intolerant. his website proclaims that he's not "running on any hidden agenda". the fact he feels the need to go out of his way to point this out frightens me. last i checked, no party in alberta has ever had to hide an agenda from albertans, only when alberta based parties have tried to market themselves federally have they had to defend against "hidden agendas". so if he is feeling the need to defend himself against such things to albertans, that scares me.

[JustAnotherGuy]

Originally Posted by Azure

I think you would find that most people on CP, regardless of political viewpoints, would agree that this is ridiculous.

I just hope the WRA doesn't ever go down this round. So, until you do you will have my vote.

You shouldn't make generalizations without having the information to back it up. Yes, I know you said most not all. But still it is a generalization that may not be correct.

I do not think this is ridiculous. It is how the political system works in Canada.