"Morally and Intellectually Corrupt"

March 13, 2025 | Chilliwack BC |

Timothy Knight, CEO, Fraser Valley Regional Association of the People's Party of Canada |

The way in which the Abbotsford-South Langley electoral district association of the Conservative Party of Canada was roughshod by their own national headquarters is - to me - proof positive that the Conservative Party of Canada is indeed, as Maxime Bernier put it in 2018, “morally and intellectually corrupt”.

I will explain what some may consider an outrageous statement.

The Canada Elections Act (SC 2000, c. 9), as implemented by Elections Canada, establishes the hierarchy, organizational roles, and chain of command within a registered Canadian political party.

The authors of the Act intended the Canadian federal political party to serve Canadians as a decentralized structure, representing its constituents at a community level. It provides a high degree of operational autonomy and trust, with robust record-keeping and transparency in the Westminster model.

A federal political party comprises its leader, the executive officers and directors, up to 343 electoral district associations (EDAs), up to 343 candidates or Members of Parliament, and its members. It is much like a corporation doing business within a national market: headquarters, franchises (EDAs), salespersons (candidates and Members of Parliament), customer base (members), and marketplace (pool of voters).

Elections Canada assigns the EDA with certain responsibilities and authority in its district to develop and maintain relationships on behalf of its party. An EDA is a board of party members who are local residents of the community, who know the community, and who have the community's best interest in mind.

The EDA is mandated to seek, vet, and nominate candidates from their community to be Members of Parliament. Additionally, the EDA supports the candidate by shouldering various administrative, financial, and organizational responsibilities. As a core democratic device, EDAs anchor the party's chain of command.

This preamble brings me to my point.

National headquarters need never override nor interfere to parachute or install a candidate of its own preference into a community with a functional EDA by overextending its authority as the executive.

In the matter of the newly installed Conservative Party of Canada candidate for Abbotsford-South Langley, Conservative Party headquarters has ignored and circumvented the Canada Elections Act, Elections Canada, their own local EDA, the chain of command, the trust of local members, the reasonable expectations of the residents of Abbotsford-South Langley, and the principles of democratic process.

All 14 sitting Conservative Party MPs in BC, the party's candidates in the remaining 27 districts, and the EDAs in the other 41 districts of BC, have chosen to be silent on this abuse of due process and this executive abrogation of the rule of law. Headquarters has muzzled all stakeholders on the issue, including MPs.

In his 2018 speech, Maxime Bernier observed, “The Conservative Party tries to avoid important but controversial issues of concern to Conservatives and Canadians in general. It is afraid to articulate any coherent philosophy to support its positions."

He continued, “Every public declaration is tested with polls and focus groups. The result is a bunch of platitudes that don’t offend anybody, but also don’t mean anything and don’t motivate anyone.”

Mr Bernier summarized, “If we want conservative principles to win the battle of ideas, we have to defend them openly, with passion and conviction.”

Rather than bring the weight of their experience and reputation into the conversation on behalf of their constituents and their neighbours in the Fraser Valley, Conservative Members of Parliament have opted to disengage, abandoning their own neighbouring district association to the whims and will of Conservative headquarters, pandering to polls and focus groups, forsaking the citizens they swore sacred oaths to represent.

Conservative Party members in British Columbia have just been served notice that their own CPC MPs represent the party and not their constituents.

On the topic of representative government, Maxime noted, “The whole strategy of the [Conservative] party is to play identity politics, pander to various interest groups and buy votes with promises, just like the Liberals.”

There are 14 Conservative Party MPs in BC. The seven Conservative MPs in the Fraser Valley represent 750,000 British Columbians. They are Ed Fast (Abbotsford MP, 25 years), Mark Strahl (Chilliwack-Hope MP, 14 years), Brad Vis (Mission-Matsqui-Abbotsford MP, 6 years), Marc Dalton (Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge MP, 6 years), Tako Van Popta (Langley-Aldergrove MP, 6 years), Tamara Jansen (Cloverdale-Langley City MP, 2 years), and Kerry-Lynne D Findlay (South Surrey-White Rock MP, 10 years).

And even these elected Members of Parliament will not speak up to defend the democratic process.

They represent the Party. They do not represent their constituents. They are by this action alone proven to support undemocratic executive interference in their own party's operations.

On a side note, thanks to the inaction of the 120 MPs of the Conservative party in their role as Official Opposition, four of the Fraser Valley Conservative MPs recently qualified for their 6-year pensions.

The evidence of their disloyalty to their own communities - to abuse their own organization - is in plain sight for the citizen to observe and weigh for themselves.

Maxime Bernier's speech was made 8 years ago. It rings true - word for word - even today.

20250313

TK

----------

Note from your PPC Fraser Valley Regional Association

The Fraser Valley Regional Association of the People's Party of Canada supports the districts of

• Chilliwack-Hope, candidate Jeff Galbraith

• Mission-Matsqui-Abbotsford, candidate Kevin Sinclair

• Abbotsford-South Langley, candidate Carlos Suaréz Rubio

Help fellow like-minded Canadians who want a Canada that stands for Freedom, Respect, Fairness, and Responsibility at all levels of governance. Help us defend the Constitution of Canada so that its guarantees are made fully available for all citizens of Canada.

Party Membership Renew or buy your PPC Membership and your funds will be used locally to support candidate pre-election events and promotions.

Donate to Restore Freedom! We have a variety of projects to which you may donate. You may donate up to $1,725 for 2024 at the district level and national headquarters, for a total maximum contribution of $3,450.

Volunteer your valuable time and energy to local public relations efforts to raise awareness of the People's Party of Canada. We need physical help to get the message out to like-minded Canadians.

Subscribe to your PPC Fraser Valley Regional Association website for updates and event notices!

The Subscribe panel is at the bottom of the home page.

----------