Lois Brown is the newly elected Conservative MP from Newmarket-Aurora. The former Conservative national councillor and Belinda Stronach rival for CPC nomination spoke to me about her impressions of the 2008 Conservative Party of Canada Policy Convention.

I’ve learned that the Conservative Party scrapped a motion before the convention that sought to affirm as Party policy the status of Quebec as a nation within a united Canada.

Political observers remember that last year, in a move of political brinkmanship against the Bloc Quebecois, the Prime Minister pre-empted a Bloc motion of Quebec’s nation status by including the distinction that Quebec as a nation exists within a united Canada.

Policy officials of the convention didn’t want to have a policy resolution go to the floor in plenary which would be voted up by Quebec delegates and voted down by Western Conservatives that some observe as resentful of la belle province for not delivering more seats for the party during the previous election. People close to the process concede that such a move could have been political dynamite and may have had the deleterous effect of putting shockwaves through the national media and within the province of Quebec.

As one policy official told me, the gain would be minimal and potential damage significant. The policy itself was redundent as the party itself moved and passed the similar motion in the House of Commons.

P-106 healthcare (No)
P-110 at-risk workers (Yes)
P-113 dangerous offender status (Yes)
P-114 faint-hope clause (Yes)
P-119 human trafficking (Yes)
P-202 affirm Charter (Yes)
P-203 human rights commission jurisdiction (Yes)
P-207 protecting pregnant women (Yes)
P-213 women (Yes)
P-218 diversity principles (Yes)
P-222 temporary workers (Yes)
P-223 program coordination and outcome audits (Yes)
P-301 new securities regulator (Yes)
P-303 capital gains (Yes)
P-305 income splitting (Yes)
P-306 tax code simplification (Yes)
P-308 striking workers (Yes)
P-321 agricultural trade agreements (Yes)
P-101 climate change in the North (Yes)
P-104 energy from garbage (Yes)
P-105 offshore oil and gas development (Yes)
P-111 complementary health (No)
P-122 veterans principles (Yes)
P-205 advancing arctic sovereignty (Yes)
P-208 student loans (No)
P-209 EI for summer students (No)
P-307 innovation (No)
P-311 invest in arctic research (Yes)
P-312 long-term energy framework (Yes)
P-316 rural family businesses (No)

Here is P-203:

P-203 Modify HRC Jurisdiction PROPOSED BY VICTORIA AND KELOWNA – LAKE COUNTRY

iii) The Conservative Party supports legislation to remove authority from the Canadian Human Rights Commission and Tribunal to regulate, receive, investigate or adjudicate complaints related to Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

The vote concluded at the plenary and passed. Nicholson voted “yes”.

Scott Reid is the Conservative MP from Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington. Reid is the proponent of the following Conservative constitutional amendment at the policy convention in Winnipeg, MB.

RESOLUTION C-107 (Delegates based on number of EDA members)

Delete the words that are struck through and add the words that are underlined in
Article 7.5 as follows:

7.5 The following shall be entitled to vote as delegates to a national convention:

7.5.1 one delegate elected from each electoral district association for every ten (10)
members of that association (always rounding the number of delegates upward),
to a maximum of ten delegates per association, an equal number not exceeding
10 from each electoral district association each of whom shall reside in the
electoral district or who shall have been elected as a director of the electoral
district association at the most recent annual general meeting, in such number
and , elected in such manner as determined by National Council which shall
include a requirement that where ten (10) delegates are to be elected at least one
such delegate reflect youth participation, and as an additional delegate the
president of the electoral district association as of a date set by National
Council;

I interviewed NDP Comms guy Brad Lavigne at the 2006 Liberal leadership convention so when I spotted him at the 2008 CPC Conservative convention I wanted to get his take.

Live Video streaming by Ustream

I shot this video of Stephen Harper’s speech at the Conservative Party policy convention.

MP Shelley Glover and Christian Paradis are warming up the audience extolling the virtues of the host city Winnipeg and trade some scripted lines on the follies of the House of Commons.

Glover introduces the mayor of Winnipeg.

Mayor says a few words about Winnipeg.

7:30pm: Glover introduces Steven Fletcher. Fletcher gets a standing ovation.

7:32pm: Fletcher asks delegates to wear red tomorrow to support the troops. Fletcher suggests we take the colour red back from the Liberals since they’ve done nothing to support them.

7:34pm: Fletcher calls Harper’s marriage to Laureen the smartest decision he ever made. Enter Laureen Harper to give Fletcher a peck on the cheek for saying so. Laureen Harper is introduced.

7:36pm: “Steven Fletcher’s gotta be the smoothest guy on six wheels” — Laureen Harper

7:37pm: “This is unusual. Usually I get the last word in our house, not the first.”

7:38pm: Mrs. Harper says that the PM will interrupt any meeting to take a call from son Ben or daughter Rachel.

7:39pm: Apparently, Stephen Harper has seen High School Musical four times.

7:40pm: Harper enters to Collective Soul’s Better Now, his signature entrance music for the 2006 and 2008 campaigns.