Nina Grewal trendsetter in widespread disdain for democracy among many Conservatives
Three of the four candidates in Fleetwood-Port Kells spoke at a candidates' forum on Oct. 7 at Northwood United Church. At the microphone is Liberal Ken Hardie. NDP candidate Garry Begg is on the left, with Green Richard Hosein in the centre. As the empty podium indicates, Conservative incumbent Nina Grewal skipped the meeting, as she has did with forums organized by the same two church groups during the 2008 and 2011 election campaigns.
Nina Grewal, in her own unique way, has been a trendsetter for some of the Conservative Party's actions in this election campaign.
First elected in 2004 in what was then the new riding of Fleetwood-Port Kells, she and her husband Gurmant, who was elected in 2004 in Newton-North Delta, were the first husband and wife team of MPs elected to the House of Commons. Gurmant had first been elected as a Reform MP in 1997 in the Surrey Central riding, which took in the middle third (and most populous) part of the city. By the time redistribution rolled around, it was the largest riding in the country by population.
The Conservatives had been poised to win in 2004 (I'll have another blog post about that in the next day or so), but lost to the Liberals, who won a minority government under Paul Martin. During the short Martin reign, Gurmant Grewal was caught up in a controversy involving discussions about floor-crossing which was never fully explained. Party leader Stephen Harper is believed to have told him not to run again.
Nina Grewal, however, was considered an acceptable candidate and ran (and won) again in 2006, 2008 and 2011. Gurmant sought the Conservative nomination in the new Cloverdale-Langley City riding for this election, but was disqualified as a candidate (along with Paul Brar) just a short time before the nomination meeting, which took place last November. Dean Drysdale was selected as the candidate in the riding.
The Grewals' son Liv won the Conservative nomination for the riding of Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon in May but resigned as the candidate in July, just a few weeks before the current election was called by Harper. The younger Grewal said his resignation was as a result of "an unfair political process" which involved an unspecified decision of the party. Brad Vis, who had been one of the other five candidates for the nomination, took over as candidate.
One of the reasons that both Gurmant and Liv saw their nomination attempts derailed was allegations of unfair practices involving recruitment of party members to participate in the nomination process.
The whole complex series of events involving three members of the Grewal family is a microcosm of what some people find disturbing about the Conservative Party. Democracy may be our system of government, and the party pays lip service to it, but it is hard to find democracy in some of the party's actions.
The party deserves credit for looking into allegations regarding how members were signed up. However, the nomination meetings themselves are closed to the media thus making them "insiders' events," even though an election involves every potential voter. Compare that with how the Reform Party, one of the Conservatives' predecessors, conducted its meetings. Reform would welcome anyone and actually charged admission to some meetings - securing full houses almost every time. Reform was very open to inquiries from local media, and even the party leaders (Preston Manning and then Stockwell Day, of successor Canadian Alliance) made themselves very available to local media.
I believe that information about candidates and the process used to select them is vital to making a decision in the polling booth.
I had been asked just over a year ago by a group of Conservatives to moderate a debate between the candidates for the Cloverdale-Langley City riding. It was to be an open event at which the candidates could have explained their different positions. The party clamped down on that debate, ruling it out of order.
The party has also ensured that most incumbents did not face challenges in their nomination meetings.
Nina Grewal, however, was a leader in lack of openness as far back at 2008. Two church groups (Fleetwood Christian Reformed and Northwood United) regularly organize a candidates' meeting in Fleetwood-Port Kells, which I have had the pleasure of moderating several times. In 2006, she appeared at the debate. Since that time, she has always made excuses of being "too busy with other events" to attend. Thus she didn't attend in 2008 or 2011, and when the groups held their meeting on Oct. 7, once again she was a no-show.
Many Conservative candidates have taken this approach to any meeting they deemed potentially hostile during this campaign. They include Dianne Watts, in South Surrey-White Rock, who was one of the most effective political communicators when she served as mayor of Surrey (see letter published in Surrey Now on Oct. 15), and Mark Warawa, the Langley MP first elected in 2004 who regularly holds town hall meetings which include politicians from other levels of government, and allow citizens to connect with elected officials very well. He also has been an excellent communicator with local media.
Drysdale and Vis appear to be somewhat immune from this trend, showing up at a number of meetings in their ridings. I give them full credit for doing so.
Harper, of course, has all but shut out national media from having any dealings with him. While this antipathy to the Parliamentary Press Gallery may be understandable, given the way he and his party were often treated in his early days as leader, it has been transmitted down the wire so that many Conservative candidates have limited or non-existent dealings with local media outlets, including community newspapers and radio stations.
Harper also refused to take part in the traditional broadcast debates. While his insistence that organizers other than the main broadcast media should have opportunities to host such debates was a step in the right direction (given the cumbersome and monopolistic approach of the main broadcast networks), the debates that did take place did not reach nearly as many viewers as in the past. Quebec viewers had two aimed at them, in the rest of Canada it was challenging to find one on TV.
One Vancouver Island candidate took non-engagement to what appears to be a new high (or low) point.
This was how his campaign responded to an invitation to an all-candidates meeting.
Glen McPherson, the campaign manager for Mark MacDonald, Conservative candidate for Nanaimo-Ladysmith responded, when asked in MacDonald would attend the all-candidates meeting held by Gabriola Island Ratepayers Association: "At this time, we will decline all invitations of debates, positions and questionnaires during the election campaign. Mark MacDonald, candidate, and the campaign team are focused on the issues of the campaign, which will be highlighted in our printed materials. When Mark becomes an elected official, you are more than welcome to contact his office, to discuss a variety of issues. Please know your issue is not being singled out, rather no response will be given any group, party or individual on any of the issues raised by them."
Sounds like McPherson never attended any civics classes in high school.
Democracy is far too precious to be be arbitrarily walled off by any party, candidate or campaign manager for their supposed political advantage. It will be interesting to see just how well the Conservative candidates who have shunned public meetings, newspaper interviews and other forms of communication and engagement with voters fare at the polls on Monday.
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