Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

'Canada's worst MP'

by Aaron Wherry on Friday, March 27, 2009 1:53pm - 26 Comments

Don Martin is not a fan of Rob Anders.

“Canada’s worst MP will fight for his political life again this weekend. His dubious stature is obviously a personal judgment call on my behalf, but Calgary West MP Rob Anders is an outsider even inside his own party. Raise his name with Conservative MPs and they wrinkle their nose like they’ve just taken a big whiff of the stuff spring uncovers in an off-leash dog-walking area.”

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  • tobyornotoby

    So Conservative voters of Calgary, do you actually like this guy or do you just vote for him and cross your fingers?

    Which leads then to a second question: What would your MP have to do for you to actually consider voting for a representative of another party?

    • Daryl

      Not be Liberal or NDP.
      Is there where we should pull a Quebec and call this Alberta or Calgary bashing. You tolerent Liberal types need to be respectfull and mindfull of our choices in who represents us.

      • Michael

        No – no introspection on your part is expected. You get the MP you deserve.

      • Stewart Smith

        Daryl is that you… or your brother Daryl

        (there now you have been bashed)

        • Daryl

          How original. If I had a dollar…………

          • dan in van

            Hey, we’re just questioning your choice of elected MP, not your loyalty to the country or your patriotism towards democracy. Leave the hackneyed hyperbolic chamber whinging to the pros — your CON MPs…

          • cwe

            You don’t have a dollar? Then get the hell out of Alberta!

    • Critical Reasoning

      tobyornotoby, despite the claims of the parliamentary experts, most Canadians vote for the party, not the individual MP. Anders has the good fortune to live in the most Conservative riding in Canada. He wins landslides, but his margin of victory would probably be even bigger if he was a more palatable candidate.

  • Critical Reasoning

    I once suggested that Anders, a formidable door-knocker, had lodged himself into his riding like a tick and had resisted the efforts of many Conservatives to dislodge him. For some reason, this comment was deemed controversial and it was deleted.

    • Wotcher?

      Times do change, don’t they?

    • James Connors

      I recall reading your “tick” comment.

      And I can confirm Don Martin’s characterisation regarding the reaction to Anders of quite a number of Calgary [Card carrying, money-sending, dyed-in-the-wool.] Conservatives in general, ” . . .they wrinkle their nose . . .”

      Additionally, a lot of those same people are having the same reaction to Harper-his-own-self. They no longer volunteer their time and resources to Harper mandated activities. Since the Income Trust thingy they aren’t quite as open to opening their wallets, and like the majority of Canadians a lot of them are now shaking their heads and wondering just what-the-hell has Harper wrought? That is; no majority government despite the wind at his back and favourable seas twice running, no significant policy successes and he managed to chisel the Treasury into a structural deficit just at the height of the last significant period of economic growth.

      I’ll guess the Canadian electorate, in general, is in the mood to take the car-keys away before Harper can exactly replicate the Bush disaster that left the United States and the Republican Party in the ditch, bloody and concussed.

      However, I digress. By way of further information here’s another article from a local perspective; ‘Former oilpatch exec hopes to unseat Rob Anders.’

      http://www.ffwdweekly.com/article/news-views/streeter/the-struggle-to-unseat-rob-anders-3514/

  • Ken S

    I have a tie for worst MPs – Del Mastro or Poilievre. They are Parliament’s equivalent to NHL’s Shawn Avery!!!

    • tobyornotoby

      Hey, I think we’ve got a TV series here. We just need a panel of judges, one rude one with a British accent, and then cell phone voting!

      So that’s three candidates for Worst Conservative. Now we need nomiations for worst Liberal, NDP and Bloc. (We can let the Greens sue, that”ll just increase ratings).

      And we need judges.

      • Sean Stokholm

        Coyne, Rick Mercer and Mike Duffy for judges.

        • Scott M.

          No… Coyne, Rick Mercer and Deb Gray, for sure!

      • MJ Patchouli

        I think we need categories of worst. Because they’re all worst at something.

  • Cael

    I remember seeing this site a few years back – http://www.voteoutanders.com/

  • CAPS

    Don Martin might also not like Anders because he is not a blonde, female G.T.A. politican who can’t speak French, http://www.amazon.com/Belinda-Political-Private-Life-Stronach/dp/1552638146 & http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/03/26/the-new-next-one/.

    Anders, for his “no” to awarding Nelson Mandela honourary citizenship alone is abominable. The good voters of Calgary West could have had David Branconnier as their M.P. but he ran as a Liberal and Anders is the result.

    Del Maestro and Poilievre are pretty close in the running though and then there are any number of other Conservatives who could be in the running.

    • Neil from Calgary

      That’s because Bronco IS a liberal; he’s no Tory, given by his most recent tax and spending spree as Calgary’s mayor.

      Rob Anders is probably the worst MP I’ve heard of. I drove through his riding a couple weeks ago when they had the signs up, saying that he’s hosting some sort of meeting (I honestly didn’t think he’d bother to show up). But then again, there might be some MP from some other party that’s even worse but doesn’t get any attention from the media from Rob Anders is, well, Rob Anders.

      Calgary-West will vote Tory no matter who’s running, just like how some Toronto ridings will vote Red so long as the candidate has a pulse. There are just some ridings around the country that are so partisan and central to the Party’s base that they’ll vote for the party regardless of the MP’s performance.

      • dan in van

        Tax and spending spree? Wow, 1-out of 2 would make him a CON… Because we know no one has to pay for the mess afterwards in a CON world, right?

  • Lord Kitchener’s Own

    I’m not sure Anders is being given enough credit here.

    He could be the worst MP in the Commonwealth.

    • Critical Reasoning

      That honour belongs to George Galloway.

      • http://coyne kc

        Pah, Galloway, whatever his faults could out debate just about any mp we possess. And he’s funny!

  • http://www.linkedin.com/in/howtogetasixpackfast How to Get Six Pack Fast

    This is quite a up-to-date information. I’ll share it on Delicious.

  • Anon

    If Anders is the worst MP, would that make Calgary West voters the dumbest or the unluckiest in Canada?

  • Ron

    Poilievre, hands down.

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