Wednesday, January 11, 2006

David Orchard. A Liberal. In Saskatoon. I'm not making this up.

Out today is news that David Orchard is officially supporting the Liberals and will be campaigning for Chris Axworthy in Saskatoon. Apparently Orchard echoes one of the Liberal TV spots when he says that he's worried about Harper working with the Bloc in a minority government. Since I really don't want to see a Harper majority government, I won't point out the obvious flaw in this logic, but I would strongly suggest the Liberals stop using that line.

As for Orchard, I've always considered him a bit of a nut, so I'm not exactly ecstatic at his conversion to the Liberal fold. It does confirm what I posted here close to two months ago about the Liberals courting Orchard. The buzz on the street is that the Grits couldn't find anyone in Saskatchewan willing to step aside to let Orchard run.


UPDATE: It's been pointed out to me that Chris Axworthy is running in Saskatoon-Wanuskewin, not Regina. Even though Ujjal Dosanj stood by my error in interviews this afternoon, I now realize it and have made the change above.

posted by calgarygrit at 4:10 p.m.

30 Comments:

  • Your team is definitely welcome to this guy.

    One more reason to vote Conservative...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:31 p.m.  

  • "The buzz on the street is that the Grits couldn't find anyone in Saskatchewan willing to step aside to let Orchard run"

    Now, I bet all the Saskatchewan Liberals are wishing they had stepped aside to let Orchard run.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:34 p.m.  

  • Now THERE's an add the Tories should run.

    "The only way to prevent a Bloc/Tory alliance is to give us a majority!"

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:40 p.m.  

  • Orchard is the man you should have taken, not Ignatieff. But I think we can understand why. The current crop of Liberals are continentalist in orientation.

    Now, some would argue (as George Grant did), that the Liberals have always been continentalist. But this seems to have been balanced by other wings of the party more in tune with what is real about Canada.

    Those wings don't exist anymore; and until you rebuild them, the Liberals will be a minority party.

    By Blogger Simon Pole, at 4:52 p.m.  

  • Couldn't he have bumped loyal trooper Myron Luczka in Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:13 p.m.  

  • If the grits get eviscerated too badly then maybe Orchard and his gang of kool-aid drinkers can try to take over that party, too.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:15 p.m.  

  • I have met Orchard a couple of times, he is crazy. I can't understand why the Liberals are courting him. He has some influence in the Pro-Life community but most of them are voting Conservative no matter what. It speaks about the sad, sad, shape of the Liberal Party in Saskatchewan.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 5:24 p.m.  

  • Orchard reminds me of the story of the Mexican mouse from the other day. "If I flame, I'm going to make sure that you lose everything as well"

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:37 p.m.  

  • Jumping onto a sinking ship.

    Smart.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:46 p.m.  

  • Yeah Bart, wrong city, you should know better.


    Your source in Regina

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:46 p.m.  

  • Stronach.

    Orchard.

    Who's next?

    Joe Who?

    Keep collecting winners.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:51 p.m.  

  • Was it Napoleon who said "Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake"?

    David Orchard and the Liberals: couldn't have happened to a nicer guy or a more deserving party.

    Heh.

    By Blogger Babbling Brooks, at 5:53 p.m.  

  • Just to pile on, let me also say, "He's all yours, and you're welcome to him."

    By Blogger Jason Hickman, at 6:00 p.m.  

  • The only surprize here is that he didn't join the NDP...then again, I don't doubt Layton would be to enthuzed about that, either.

    Anyway...

    Good on the Liberals. They deserve him, should be a great fit.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:12 p.m.  

  • The only apocolypse Layton is thinking about is a Liberal one.

    NDP MPs. In our cities. In Canada. We're not making this up.

    canwest:

    Martin "has nothing left to say to Canadians other than to tell them that unless they vote Liberal, the sun will not rise, spring will not come, and volcanoes will destroy the earth," Layton said while campaigning in Hamilton, Ont.

    h/t coyne

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:17 p.m.  

  • What exactly is the strategy behind this? The man has no more supporters than a rag-tag group of dead enders, and I'm fairly sure most people who even recognize his name remember him only as that kooky guy who kept running for the PC leadership, even though he didn't agree with a single one of their policies.

    I gather it's supposed to be some sort of stunning rebuke of Peter Mackay, and by extension, Stephen Harper to have him on your side, but is this going to move a single vote in Saskatchewan? Maybe if he hailed from some province where some residual affection for the PCs survived the Reform/CA years, but Saskatchewan was at the core of the Reform movement - Conservatives there don't have any time for this guy and his shenanigans.

    It's hard to take the Board seriously when they consider something like this to be a strategic masterstroke.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:23 p.m.  

  • Orchard was sitting 3 rows behind me in Toronto they day we (the PC party) voted to approve the merger. He was one of maybe 6 people in the room who voted "no", vs. hundreds of us in that room who votes yes, then sang the most moving rendition of "O Canada" that I've ever witnessed.

    Scott Brison spoke in favour of the merger that day, over satellite.. :)

    By Blogger Michael Fox, at 6:48 p.m.  

  • I believe the thinking is that Orchard has a fair number of supporters in rural Saskatchewan, a combination of anti-abortion and anti-free trade people (I know, it sounds strange). I don't see how it could hurt Axworthy, Orchard's people are a small cult and will probably vote the way they are suppossed to, maybe a few hundred extra votes and a handful of volunteers that he otherwise wouldn't have had. The people most pissed off by this in Saskatchewan are Conservatives who wouldn't vote Liberal anyways. It does seem to be pretty big news in these parts.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:00 p.m.  

  • Mike Duffy was "physically threatened" by John Duffy. Read it here kids (reference to physical threats in later paragraph:

    http://angrygwn.mu.nu/archives/151044.php

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:07 p.m.  

  • CG,

    Say hi to your new friends. I remember DO's entourage from the '03 PC leadership convention. You're going to love that bunch of charmers.

    Think Stepford.

    Actually some of them are quite nice. But only a few.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:08 p.m.  

  • I was fairly active in Saskatchewan pro-life circles a few years back - can't say I recall ever hearing of Orchard in that context.

    By Blogger Cyrano, at 11:46 p.m.  

  • Orchard actually has a storefront office right in Saskatoon, though I have never seen anyone in it.

    The kicker to all of this is:

    The NDP turned Liberal Candidate (being Axworthy, former federal and provicial NDPer) is being supported by the Conservative turned Liberal (being Orchard), while the Liberal turned Reform turned Alliance turned Conservative (being Vellacott) is trying to intimidate the Christian Hertitage Party candidate into pulling out (apparently Christians shouldn't take votes away from other Christians, especially those already in power).

    Now there is also a Liberal tv ad featuring Axworthy with none other than Goodale trumpeting Liberal achievements for Saskatchewan (a pretty short list) on tv, not sure if that is a good thing for Axworthy.

    In amongst all of this stuff is Jim Maddin (former mayor of Saskatoon) running a good campaign as the NDP candidate and can't help but benefit from all of this.

    By Blogger Sean S., at 11:50 p.m.  

  • bqmDavid Orchard is totally insane.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:59 a.m.  

  • "Was it Napoleon who said "Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake?"

    Actually it was Horatio Nelson who said: "Gentlemen, when the enemy is committed to a mistake we must not interrupt him too soon."

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:17 p.m.  

  • Orcahard is a perfect fit for the Liberals, as the lack of mental hygene is a byproduct of marrying your sisters, and is widely seen as a character flaw in all Liberals.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:00 p.m.  

  • "Can anyone give me a better option???"

    Hey Joe, the problem as I see it is that the conservative party is just full of pro-lifers and pro-choicers. Who the hell can vote for a party like that.

    Horny Toad

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:16 p.m.  

  • Hey SpudIslander, do you mean "Captain Morgan"? You know, I think Joe Green was refering to "Captain Canada", Brian Tobin. You'll remember, the poor sap that thought he could replace J.C. (Chretien, that is) as Liberal leader until he got the shaft from Paul Martin (Paul Martin JUNIOR, not the OTHER Paul Martin... you know, the SENIOR Paul Martin... the one with the accomplishments, and the one whose medals Junior likes to pin on his own chest every so often).

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:32 p.m.  

  • Joe Green are you nuts? You actually said that "no one in his right mind missed the signals that she did not "trust" Stephen Harper and the "neocons" in the matter of national unity and the Separatist Question".

    Or perhaps no one in their right mind missed the fact that no one in their right mind missed out on the fact that she switched sides the day before the vote that would bring the government down, and for a hefty cabinet position to boot Which leaves us with some unanswered questions about your mental faculties.

    Then you call McKay an opportunist and Orchard a man of principle. Excuse me while I vomit. Orchard, Charest, and clark couldn't get past their own Huge egos to notice the fact that conservatism in canada was dying and fading into the background. As a result, conservatism in the 90's can be nicknamed 'conservatism's wasted decade'. McKay was an opportunist? How? He gave up party leadership to sit in obscurity in the reunited conservative party. He refused to run in the 1st leadership campaign in order to prevent a split among old party lines, and to promote unity in the newly formed party. Yeah, he's a real opportunist alright. Or maybe he was just a principled man who saw what needed to be done to advance conservatism in canada, swallowed his pride and gave up a hell of a lot on a huge gamble to do it. He put vision before himself. Which is more than those blowhards Clark and Orchard can say.

    "a sensitive Catholic riding a stormy sea filled with the lies, deceit, filth and wretchedness of every depravity known to the human race, and where "greed", takes centre stage."

    I don't know where to begin. Paul Martin isn't sensitive (re: liberal attack ads) nor is he catholic (re: abortion and gay marriage stances).

    With regards to your comments about the stormy seas of etc. etc., i have only this to say: Let's nickname Martin Neptune in an appropriate reference to who is responsible for all of it.

    Oh, and then there's all of your references to 'neocons' and Bush, etc. etc. Typical Liberal Claptrap.

    While you might be a moonbat, at least CalgaryGrit isn't. CG, you're probably one of the most sensible, respectable and intelligent liberals I have ever had the pleasure of encountering. Your blog is a pleasure to read; Kudos!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:14 p.m.  

  • Hey, the incredibly brave anonymous: Goeorge Hees ran for the PC leadership in 1956. Not officially, but he asked everybody and their dog if they'd endorse his candidacy and when they said no he got behind Dief so don't think the 'principled Peter MacKay didn't do the same.

    By Blogger Sean Tisdall, at 5:07 a.m.  

  • You Neo Cons don't know a true patrot when you see one. Thank God for David Orchard and people like him fighting to keep this country for Canadians.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:26 p.m.  

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