Party Politics Screwed Maddeaux

Greasy party politics is no laughing matter

If Big Dairy can buy a candidate or a party leader, why wouldn’t Beijing have a go?

Fans of Sabrina Maddeaux queued up online Thursday to express their disappointment after the former National Post columnist announced she was suspending her bid for the Conservative nomination in Aurora–Oak Ridges–Richmond Hill. An excellent communicator who did very fine work in these pages covering the housing crisis, which is currently Canada’s crisis-in-chief and a leading preoccupation for party leader Pierre Poilievre, Maddeaux seemed like someone the party would at the very least like to give a fair shake.

But if you look up famous quotations about politics — “war without bloodshed,” etc. — you won’t find many about how fair it is. Politics within parties is often just as vicious and even dumber than between parties, as someone called or calling himself Norman McDaniel demonstrated in a mass email warning “fellow Conservatives” that Maddeaux isn’t the kind of conservative the Conservatives need.

For example, in a 2012 article written as style editor of online outlet the Toronto Standard, Maddeaux sounds like she’s not hugely pro-gun — though the quotes McDaniel shares are simple statements of fact, and Maddeaux has since vented frustration at the Liberals’ excessive and simplistic focus on gun control as a way of saving lives.

For the record, Aurora–Oak Ridges–Richmond Hill isn’t hugely pro-gun either. It’s a suburb of Toronto, not of Houston. It’s not clear to me that Norman McDaniel, whoever he is, is helping the Conservative Party of Canada accomplish anything useful.

Indeed, Maddeaux alleges the party confirmed to her there is no Norman McDaniel in the known Conservative universe in Aurora, which is a notable red-blue swing riding. And yet, Maddeaux alleges, Mysterious Norman’s email went to addresses he should not have had, namely new Conservative members she had signed up.

Again, this is all fairly standard for intramural party drama. But the party’s reaction was remarkable.

I might have gone with something like, “party members and potential party members can trust that our nomination processes — like all our internal processes — are rigorous and closely monitored, and that we take any and all allegations of impropriety seriously.”

Instead, party spokesperson Sarah Fischer essentially told National Post’s Catherine Lévesque that all this backbiting and alleging of impropriety is simply par for the course.

“It’s common for the party to receive complaints from nomination candidates about their competitors over suspicions of wrongdoing and the use of lists,” Fischer told the Post. In fact, Fischer said, the Conservatives had heard complaints that Maddeaux was also exploiting inappropriate access to contact lists.