Read some interesting news out of Alberta concerning a north of the border transphobic foe of ours in Conservative MP Rob Anders.He has held his Calgary West federal riding since 1997 and been a lightning rod for criticism during his time on Parliament Hill.
In addition to insulting former South African president Nelson Mandela and Canadian veterans, and making a long list of gaffes, Canadian transpeople and their allies around the world remember him deploying the 'bathroom predator' meme when C-279, the Trans Rights Bill was introduced.
The bill eventually passed the House of Commons in March 2013.
But his riding was recently redrawn, renamed Calgary Signal Hill and he faced stiff competition in this Conservative Party nomination fight for it against Ron Liepert, who was a cabinet finance minister in Alberta's Progressive Conservative provincial government.
It was a nasty intraparty battle that received national media attention in Canada. Prime Minster Stephen Harper endorsed Anders, but it didn't help. There were 3250 card carrying Conservative Party members eligible to vote in that nomination election yesterday, and 2400 voted.
For the first time since 1997 Rob Anders has lost an election, and joy has broken out in the riding and elsewhere now that it has happened. .
While Liepert becomes the Tory nominee in Signal Hill when the next federal Canadian election is called in 2015, as for Anders, he still gets to serve as the MP until that happens.
Anders also hasn't announced whether he will try to run for the Tory nomination in another riding in an attempt to get a seventh term in the House of Commons. But based on the tweets I read and the joy being expressed over his defeat, he may want to reconsider that. .
No comments:
Post a Comment