Three days ago, Gloria Kovach, a councillor for the city of Guelph, was unceremoniously dumped from her post as head of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, with only two months in her term left to go:
Gloria Kovach is stunned after being severed from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities just two months before the end of her term as president.
The Guelph councillor said the national lobby organization made a "politically motivated" decision to remove her from her post last Wednesday. It happened the day after she lost a bid for the local candidacy with the federal Conservatives.
Kovach couldn't comment too much last night but she said she believes her removal is related to her affiliation with the Conservative party. Her term was supposed to last until the federation of municipalities' annual meeting in Calgary in June.
Now who would be so petty as to want to punish Kovach for having the temerity to run for the Conservatives?
With a hat tip to National Newswatch, it goes right to the top:
Coun. Gloria Kovach says she plans to seek legal advice related to her ouster as president of the Canadian Federation of Municipalities, which she charges was caused by Liberal leader Stephane Dion.
She said the trouble began soon afterwards when she met with Dion for prebudget discussions. With her at that meeting, her first with the new Liberal leader, was FCM first vice-president Gord Steeves of Winnipeg.
Dion "was not very engaging. He did not have a lot to say to us," Kovach said.
Soon afterwards, FCM staff told her that Dion had contacted FCM and the Big City Mayors Caucus "to say he would not deal with FCM with me as president," she said in an interview Wednesday.
"From there it started a spiral: What do we do? Dion's not happy," she said.
Kovach said she worked with all the party leaders as FCM president. "I couldn't imagine" Prime Minister Stephen Harper "trying to flex his muscles in this way," as Dion did, she said.
Dion's office is denying the allegation, saying everything was very pleasant. The FCM is denying any political machinations, but there is still no explanation for the timing or justification of Kovach's termination.
It could be that Stephane Dion is punishing Gloria Kovach for this news release:
Statement by FCM President Gloria Kovach on the Election of Stephane Dion as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada
OTTAWA, Dec. 3 /CNW Telbec/ - "On behalf of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), I want to congratulate Mr. Stephane Dion on being chosen Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
In his response to an FCM questionnaire sent to all Liberal leadership candidates, Mr. Dion endorsed an active role for the federal government in Canada's cities and communities.
Mr. Dion has also shown he understands the link between investing in environmentally sustainable infrastructure and dealing with climate change and other environmental issues.
We look forward to working with him and his caucus, as well as with all parties in the House of Commons and all Members of Parliament, to make Canada's cities and communities among the best places to live and work in the world."
Working with all the parties? What the...that's unacceptable! Clearly Kovach is a partisan hack of the most extreme sort for suggesting that it was possible to work with the Conservatives as well as the Liberals.
But before we dismiss Kovach as being paranoid, remember that there were Liberals who thought she should have been turfed:
The veteran Guelph councillor became President of the FCM in December 2005.
Kovach, the voice of almost 1,500 municipalities across the country, announced her intentions to run for the Conservative nomination early last month.
Do any of the 1,500 other members of the FCM, maybe even some high ranking ones, join me in calling on Ms. Kovach to resign her position?
Maybe a blogger's opinion doesn't count for much in of itself, but I wonder just how many Liberals did see a problem in the head of the FCM being such a dedicated Conservative. With an election potentially only weeks away, maybe it was decided that she had to go.
