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March 29, 2011
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E N T E R T A I N M E N T chilliwacktimes.com
Party poopers Conservative nomination process called undemocratic, corrupt and ‘a coronation’
BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
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House, and O’Mahony’s campaign brochure says, flat out, that most locals probably think she has about as much chance of being elected as she does of pole vaulting Mt. Cheam. So she is grinding it out street by street. Today she is joined by NPD
erious issues about democratic process and even corruption have been raised by local Conservative Party members in Chilliwack a week after Mark Strahl was selected to replace his father Chuck. Disgruntled Conservatives in two other ridings have also raised questions about the fairness of a process that gave candidates about a week to mount a campaign and complete their nomination papers by March 18. EB IRST In Chilliwack- First reported on Fraser Canyon, chilliwacktimes.com former Conservative riding association president Mark Strahl won the Tory nomination on March 21, barely a week after his father announced he was leaving politics. “I thought it was more like a coronation than a nomination,” said Chilliwack resident Brian Coulter, a retired university professor who attended the nomination meeting and found it unfair. “He [Mark Strahl] was like the crown prince in waiting.” Coulter said there should have
See NDP, Page 5
See PARTY, Page 7
Cornelia Naylor/TIMES
NDP candidate Gwen O’Mahony was out knocking on doors last week drumming up support for campaign to be the next MP for Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon.
Street fight for your vote BY CORNELIA NAYLOR cnaylor@chilliwacktimes.com
“Are you NDP? I don’t vote NDP.” The response—coming from a man poking his head out of a Fairfield Island home—is hardly a surprise. NDP Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon candidate Gwen O’Mahony knows she’s in hostile territory out here in poll number 143, a Conservative stronghold that, despite a 59 per cent voter turnout last election, generated only 12 per cent support for her party.
NDP candidate pounds the pavement looking for voter support in heavily Conservative riding “It’s the weakest poll in terms of NDP support in all of the northern half of Chilliwack,” said O’Mahony. But she’s not here to argue with people, only to show her face, she said, so when the man closes the door without taking a pamphlet, she just moves on, literally jogging to the next house. O’Mahony has been doing this
for a year, getting the jump on her opponents, who scrambled to get their candidates in place just days before last Friday’s non-confidence vote in the House of Commons triggered a spring election. Despite the head start, though, the NDP can hardly afford to be cocky. Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon has never sent a New Democrat to the
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