Premier Ed Stelmach booted Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo MLA and former Cabinet Minister Guy Boutilier out of the PC caucus today, over the phone...
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. ...Boutilier recently accused Health Minister Ron Liepert of "talking gibberish" on the poor state of seniors care in Fort McMurray. He recently endeared himself to Stelmach by criticizing him for not wanting a cabinet minister "who graduated from Harvard with Barack Obama."
"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."
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8 comments:
Stelmach just sucks.
This will surely feed the flames of the Wildrose Alliance. Also, it has to give Ed more enemies at his upcoming leadership review.
I think it's quite reasonable to expect the PC's to be installing a new leader before the next election.
Guy Boutilier has just assured his re-election, especially if he now jumps ship to either the Liberals or the WRA (Boutilier for WRA Leader?...they could do worse!)
Stelmach may believe he has to show he has control over his caucus, but on the issue of senior care, he and Liepart don't really have a lot of support, do they? This is NOT the hill he should be willling to die on, because die he will.
And what does this say about all the other caucus members that DON'T speak up? How will that affect their re-election chances; not to the good, I'll warrant.
Well, I can't say I had a particularly high opinion of the PCs, but this puts the nail in the coffin for me. As someone who feels like a political orphan caught between the PCs and the Liberals, part of me always hoped that the Conservatives would redeem themselves by becoming more honest and more competent.
Embarrassing quotes by ministers are not a big deal, and I can even overlook a few bad policies decisions. I wasn't going to vote for Stelmach, but I could still respect him as being well-meaning, if not cut-out for the job.
Well, there goes that idea. If Stelmach is willing to jettison an MLA who has worked more than a decade for the party because that MLA voiced the concerns of his constituents, I'm afraid I can no longer say anything good about Stelmach. To put this in perspective, I have more respect for Myron Thomson and Ted Morton, both men with whom I disagree fundamentally, than I now do for Ed Stelmach.
As for the rest of the PCs, there's still some competent and fairly honest MLAs in the caucus. But by standing mute, they tar themselves with the same brush as is going to be used against Stelmach. It's time to look for a new leader, and I suggest they start soon.
Given that Boutilier wants to help a Friends of Medicare rally while a former president of Friends of Medicare is running for the Liberals in the Calgary Glenmore byelection, if Boutilier does not want to sit as an independent the Liberals are the natural party for him.
As a Wildroser I would have second thoughts if he came over to us. Not because he'd be leaving a party that has little use for backbenchers and even less for the grassroots; we take any and all refugees from my-way-or-the-highway Stelmach. The more authoritatively and dismissively the Premier behaves the better for us. But I wonder whether Boutilier can accept the idea of limited dollars heading into his own riding. Although Boutilier is correct on the particulars of unfunded and mismanaged medicare, you are never going to have any spending discipline if no MLA is willing to accept anything less than the moon in terms of projects in his or her constituency.
Guy Boutilier for leader of the Alberta Liberal Party!
Most people's first instinct is going to be that Steady Eddie is the villain here, but if the facts should be that Boutilier went public because he was special pleading for some pork that circumvented otherwise applicable merit-based or competitive allocation processes, I'd give Ed a break on this one. For once
It is about time that clown got booted out. He is a fool.
Brian Dell writes:
"Given that Boutilier wants to help a Friends of Medicare rally while a former president of Friends of Medicare is running for the Liberals in the Calgary Glenmore byelection, if Boutilier does not want to sit as an independent the Liberals are the natural party for him."
Great logic. How about this: the current ED of FOM Boutilier was helping is a former NDP MLA, so the NDP must be the natural choice for him, not the Libs. Add to that the fact that the NDP are the founders of Public Healthcare in this country.
And why is no one talking about the fact that Stelmach refuses to discipline Tarchuk after continual mishandling of her portfolio and who has children dying and killing under her watch, yet they'll boot Boutilier at the drop of a hat for not toeing the party line.
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