Angry in the Great White North

Here is Garth Turner's Electoral District Association Board of Directors:

2007-2008 HALTON FEDERAL EDA BOD CONTACTLIST

		Board Position
	Garth Turner	Member of Parliament
1	Del Mcintee	Past President/door knocking support
2	Scott Nicholl	President
3	Steve Savage	Executive Vice President
4	Ken Johnston	Vice President - Policy
5	Carey De Pass	Treasurer/door knocking
6	Gillian Whittall	Executive Secretary
7	Shauna Richter	Membership Secretary
1	Dan Baril	assoc member/research/polling
2	Doug Shaye	assoc member/door knocking/signs
3	Esther Shaye	assoc member/election readiness
4	David Bazar	Oakville Director/signs/budget
5	Kevin Brackley	Campbellville Director/signs (rural)
6	Charles Brewer	Campbellville Director/roadie
7	Mike Brown	Oakville Director
8	Vanessa Brown	Oakville youth
9	Ben Friedland	Campbellville Director/Youth Chair
10	Herag Hamboyan	Oakvillel Director/Health
11	Betty Kennedy	Campbellville Director
12	Sheri Van de laar	Oakville Director/finance
13	Jen Williams	Milton Director/youth
14	Murray Workman	Oakville Director/recording secretary
15	George Soltysik	Milton director
16	Vince Drnovscek	Campbellville Director
17	Dave Lambert	Milton director/technology
18
19
20
21

New volunteers
	Mark Fletcher	Burlington Director/lawyer
	Jacie Klayh	Burlington Director

For follow up
	Phil Cahley	Oakville
	Mike Ivenchenko	Oakville
	Tania Orton	C'ville Director
	Amrit Rai	Milton Director

Two major Green Party members jump out from the list. One is Dan Baril, a Green Party strategist that quite publicly resigned from his position over a disagreement with Elizabeth May over the deal with Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion. That deal saw the Liberals agree not to run a candidate in the Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova, where Elizabeth May would be the Green Party candidate, in return for the Green Party not running a candidate in Dion's Quebec riding of Saint-Laurent-Cartierville.

Said Baril of the deal and his resignation:

Dan Baril, a party strategist, resigned his post.

On Friday, May announced a deal with Liberal Leader Stephane Dion that the Liberals won't run a candidate in the Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova that May plans to contest. The riding is held by Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay. In turn, the Green party won't run anyone in Dion's Montreal riding of Saint-Laurent-Cartierville.

"I strongly advised against doing Central Nova and against doing what happened on Friday," Baril told the Star shortly after submitting his resignation.

"Everything they're hearing (from political opponents) are things I advised them they were going to be facing after this and that it was going to hurt them, and so therefore don't do it or do it differently," Baril said. Green party officials decided Sunday their bare-bones budget could no longer support Baril's salary, but backed away from suggestions he'd been dismissed.

Baril's analysis of the deal concluded that it was a bad one driven by political considerations instead of good Green policy:

Even if every Liberal and every Green buys into the symbolism, outside of Central Nova and St-Laurent, exactly how does one go about supporting it in a way that defeats Mr. Harper? History suggests Mr. Dion has never needed Green support to win his seat in St-Laurent, and it is not yet known what amount of Liberal support will impact Elizabeth May in Central Nova. At best, the strategy may elect one Green in Central Nova, and in the other 307 ridings, a confused electorate which has been given no clear indication what the game plan is, will effectively help Conservatives by splitting the vote (See Chantal Hebert: May-Dion deal might work out for Harper).

The current strategy, therefore, having little chance of accomplishing the stated goal - to at all costs unseat Mr. Harper - then what prey tell is the real objective? To get Elizabeth May a seat in the house of commons? Surely there were easier ridings to pick than Central Nova. Based on the by-election results alone, London, for example was at least 50/50 even without Liberal support, and a slam-dunk with it. In this case, I suppose not making Glen Pearson the sacrificial lamb was more important than saving the planet.

So he dumps the Green Party (or is dumped) and moves to help his friend Garth Turner, formally joining the Board of Directors.

But the other notable Green on the list is Tania Orton. An activist on the issue of banning the use of pesticides in gardens, Tania Orton ran for the Green Party in the 2004 election, garnering just under 6% of the votes cast in the riding of Oakville:

Tania Orton is the Green Party of Canada candidate for Oakville. She is a Canadian Citizen born in Brazil. She is an architect by profession, and has taught in Indonesia, Sudan, Ethiopia, and China. Tania graduated from the Universidade Federal Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil in 1973 with a degree in architecture. She worked as an architect while living in Montreal where she also worked as writer/researcher and on-air news reader for Radio Canada International, the international short-wave service of the CBC. Tania has volunteered with the Red Cross helping refugees and victims of torture, and with Halton Regional Police Victims’ Services. She has served as Director and Treasurer of the Joshua Creek Ratepayer's Association in Oakville, and as Executive Director of the Oakville Provincial Liberal Riding Association. Additionally, Tania is a member of the environmental watchdog group, Oakvillegreen, and founder of Gardens Off Drugs, an Oakville-based group dedicated to raising public awareness of the dangers of pesticide use.

Interestingly, she is listed under the "Follow-up" heading, suggesting she is still being wooed. She is also listed as "C'ville Director". Is that "Campbellville Director"? But then Garth Turner already has a director for Campellville in Vince Drnovscek. Minor thing I suppose (except perhaps for Vince).

I wonder if the Green Party knows about Tania being on this list. In any case, it's not clear that Orton has been active with the Green Party since the 2004 election. Perhaps like Baril, she is not interested in working with the Green Party under Elizabeth May and so has been identified by Garth Turner as someone to pull into his Liberal organization.

The real question, though, is whether significant former members of the Green Party are just showing up on Garth Turner's list, or if every EDA Board of Directors for the Liberal Party has a distinct tinge of green in it.