Liberal Dissidents Begin Letter-Writing Campaign

Liberal Dissidents Begin Letter-Writing Campaign

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 15:02

 

 

The chief of the Shoal Lake Cree Nation has sent letters to Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River Liberal candidate Joan Beatty and and Liberal Leader Stephane Dion calling for her resignation.

 

In them, Marcel Head says constituents want to work with a party that believes in the duty to consult.

 

Head adds the party can talk all it wants about increasing the number of women and Aboriginal people in politics, but at the end of the day it still has to be democratic.

 

Head also says would-be candidates David Orchard and John Dorion have been left with huge expenses and nothing to show for it.

 

Head hopes Saskatchewan Liberal Association president Frank Proto will agree to call a general meeting of Liberals in the northern riding.

 

But Proto says he is not prepared to call an AGM, just so some party members can try to upset what he feels is a perfectly valid appointment.

 

Head says Proto can ignore the situation all he wants, but it’s not going away.

 

Meantime, the president of the Liberal constituency association in Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River says she is disappointed Beatty was appointed rather than nominated.

 

Cheryl Maurice, who has been the party’s president in the riding since last April, says she doesn’t have a problem with Beatty herself — but she doesn’t think Beatty should have won the seat without an official contest.

 

Maurice also says she didn’t know Beatty was going to be appointed until after it happened.

 

Maurice intends to support and attend an upcoming meeting of an interim committee struck by dissident Liberals.

 

A tentative date has been set to hold one on January 26th at Christopher Lake.