Absolutely horrendous timing, as an already depressed CPC base will be further weakened by this appalling anti-freedom move.
On the eve of an election, the Conservative Party has decided to further depress and betray their core base of supporters.
The party has removed Jonas J. Smith as their candidate in the Yukon.
Smith was the candidate in 2019, and came within 150 votes of beating the Liberals.
Smith was again set to be the candidate this time, but the party has removed him.
Why did they do it?
Because he opposes mandatory vaccinations and opposes vaccine passports.
Here’s what he said in a press release posted to Facebook:
WHITEHORSE – Longtime Yukon political activist and Conservative Party of Canada election candidate Jonas J. Smith has been disallowed from running for the party in the upcoming federal election by the party’s central campaign. He was informed of the unilateral and final decision to disallow his candidacy earlier today.
“This comes as shocking news to me, my family, my local campaign team and my thousands of supporters across the territory,” said Smith. “With an election call imminent, this is devastating news for the conservative movement in the Yukon and I fear will have repercussions across the country.”
The reason behind the disallowing of Smith’s candidacy is his opposition to calls for implementation of mandated workplace vaccinations and vaccine passport requirements in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I believe in standing up for the rights of all minorities, including those of the unvaccinated – be it for medical, religious or personal reasons – and that our country needs less discrimination, not more,” continued Smith. “Generations of Canadians have fought for our Section 15 Charter rights, as well as freedom of choice when it comes to matters of bodily-autonomy, and these proposed vaccination-related restrictions will vastly alter what kind of country our children will inherit.”
At a news conference last month, the Liberal Party’s Yukon candidate and Smith’s sole declared competitor to date, Dr. Brendan Hanley, in his previous capacity as the Yukon’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, has himself acknowledged that some people can’t, or won’t, get vaccinated for a variety of reasons, and that all Canadians should treat each other with respect.
“In an economy struggling to recover, partially because of a shortage of skilled workers, it is unconscionable to shame or threaten to dismiss employees over their confidential medical status, particularly in those industries and populations that are already experiencing high vaccine uptake among their majorities and as such are already at a low risk of viral transmission or severe infection,” Smith added. “We don’t tolerate that type of discrimination for a whole host of other known health risks, so there has to be a better way to protect our country’s most vulnerable without restricting the movements and livelihoods of perfectly healthy Canadians within their own country. A two-tiered society is not constitutional, and it is certainly not normal.”
For those supporters with any feedback regarding the news of Smith’s removal, Smith encourages them to share their comments directly to the headquarters of the Conservative Party of Canada campaign.
“My family and I would like to offer our most sincere gratitude for all the support and encouragement we have received from across the country over the three years since I first announced my intention to seek the Conservative Party’s Yukon nomination,” concluded Smith. “I would now ask people to respect our privacy at this time so that we may begin to process this significant turn of events. God Bless Canada. God Bless the Yukon.”
A horrendous move
This is a horrendous move by the Conservatives for many reasons.
First, opposing mandatory vaccinations and opposing vaccine passports is exactly what a ‘conservative’ party should be doing.
The Liberals & NDP are pushing for those draconian measures, so why the hell wouldn’t the ‘conservative’ party of Canada be pushing back?
Second, Smith represents the views of many conservative Canadians, who are very disturbed by the expansion of government power we’ve seen in the past year and a half. If the CPC won’t welcome Smith, they are also sending a clear message that they don’t welcome those who oppose government overreach.
Third, from a strategic perspective, it’s a horrendous move because it will further demoralize the already weakened CPC base. With the party trailing in all the polls, and with O’Toole’s personal popularity lagging far behind the ‘conservative’ brand, this move will further damage their election prospects.
Fourth, it shows a complete lack of respect for individual thinking or different viewpoints within the CPC. If people who support mandatory vaccinations and vaccine passports are welcome in the CPC (despite those being anti-freedom, anti-conservative positions), why wouldn’t someone like Jonas Smith – who actually holds conservative positions on those issues – be removed?
A win for the PPC, Maverick, & Sloan
This move will further weaken the CPC, while helping Maxime Bernier, Maverick Party, and Derek Sloan’s party as well. It makes it easier for them to say that the CPC isn’t a ‘conservative’ party anymore, and will drive people into other parties that are actually standing up for individual rights and freedoms, rather than going along with the fear-based, big government, statist narrative.
Why does the CPC dislike their own supporters?
https://twitter.com/punditclass/status/1426211038895034369
The removal of Smith is another example of the top CPC brass appearing to dislike their own supporters. Amazingly, despite winning in a democracy being about adding votes, not subtracting them, the CPC seems to spend much of their time looking for ways to alienate and remove their current supporters, in some sort of quixotic quest to win some ‘other voters’ elsewhere, who never really seem to materialize.
It’s also shows a party brass that is disconnected not only from their core supporters, but from many of their own MPs.
Recently, I went on The Blueprint with Jamie Schmale, the CPC MP for Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock. Despite it being the official podcast of the CPC, we actually had quite an informative and wide-ranging discussion, particularly about freedom of speech and why Bill C-10 is so dangerous.
Though I’m not surprised it hasn’t been posted yet (probably some sort of internal dispute or ‘fear’ of too much open discussion), it shows that there are MPs in the CPC like Schmale, and of course Pierre Poilievre, who hold conservative views on many core issues.
Yet, since the party increasingly is represented by O’Toole’s brand, and since that brand is associated with things like the carbon tax betrayal, the removal of Derek Sloan under a false pretext, and now the removal of Jonas Smith for expressing views that most conservatives would agree with, it makes it tougher and tougher for people to justify sticking with a party that seems not to want the voters it currently has.
Of course, removing Smith and latching on to the Liberal/NDP fear-based narrative on draconian restrictions is also anti-democratic, since it deprives Canadians of a real debate on our civil liberties, further turning our democracy into a mere illusion of choice.
What about loyalty?
The final point I’ll make here is about loyalty.
Political parties demand loyalty from their members and candidates.
But that loyalty isn’t reciprocated.
What message does it send when someone like Jonas Smith, who has been a CPC candidate before, almost won in 2019, and has dedicated years to working for the party can be so callously removed for saying something that accurately reflects the views of most conservatives?
Why would people be loyal to a party that isn’t loyal to them?
The CPC appears determined to alienate as many of their core voters as possible, and with an election just around the corner that is a shockingly dumb move.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
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