Questions raised about rookie NDP MP's papers

[shockedcanadian]

Two people whose names appear on the nomination papers for the NDP's newly elected MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau say they never provided their signatures.

Radio-Canada reported Wednesday that the signatures of Rene Young and his wife are on Brosseau's papers, but the couple doesn't remember agreeing to endorse her.....


http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/cbc-article.aspx?cp-documentid=28615588

[Very_Boring_Name]

1. This is the same Quebec MP who doesn't speak french, and went to vegas during her campaign

Now THAT'S quality Jack. :eyes:

[Metric System]

2. And we STILL haven't heard from her or seen her since being elected. Really weird.

[Ken Burch]

4. The Vegas trip doesn't matter. Working-class people are lucky to MANAGE vacations

And(unlike the yuppies who vote Liberal)can't afford to reschedule them. Ms. Brousseau is a single mother who works two jobs to support her family...probably had to save up tip money for months or years to avoid the trip...and won anyway.

She's a hero.

If a byelection was forced, she'd win it in a walk since the voters would be pissed off about the old parties trying to nullify their choice. The Bloc couldn't take it back and the Liberals couldn't ever win that riding.

Give it a rest. Nothing wrong with Ms. Brousseau. The voters knew her story and they're fine with her.

[Very_Boring_Name]

13. Guess what? You have to make sacrifices if you want to be an MP

It comes with the job. You don't go to vegas during an election campaign. And you certainly should SPEAK the language of your constituents. She has never even BEEN to the riding before.

[Ken Burch]

15. If the voters accepted the Vegas thing and elected her anyway, that's the end of it

At least until the next election.

I agree it's a bit eccentric, but it's silly of you guys to act like it should actually invalidate the election.

Ms. Brousseau, a hard-working single mother and a role model for young people getting involved in politics, is going to be sworn in as an MP like all the others and you can't stop that now. If you try, you'll lose women forever, you'll lose working-class people forever(few of them voted Liberal anyway) and you'll lose Quebec forever.

There's nothing to be gained from dwelling on something that clearly doesn't matter.

All you do in obsessing about this is make yourself and the other remaining Liberals look like sexist, elitist jerks who can't accept their defeat with any dignity. Grow up already.

[Very_Boring_Name]

16. It's not the end of it if you fraudulently got yourself on the ballot

You honestly don't think its an issue that someone within her campaign forged the signatures of constituents to get her name on the ballot?

[iverglas]

17. loaded question much?

Very civil of you.

[Ken Burch]

19. The only way it would be an issue would be if she ended up with less than 100 signatures

Clearly, that's not going to happen.

And if it does, and they force a byelection, the only parties that could win it would be the NDP or the Bloc. Why would the Liberals want to subject themselves to ANOTHER electoral humiliation?

[Ken Burch]

20. Read downthread. Elections Canada cleared her. It's over.

And your party made itself look horrible by pressing this. Good luck ever getting working-class women to vote for you again, buddy.

[CHIMO]

21. Liberals, Tories won’t challenge nomination papers in court

OTTAWA—The federal Liberals and the Conservatives have not sought to overturn the election of a controversial New Democrat in Quebec, despite alleging her nomination papers are riddled with irregularities.

Both parties are questioning how Ruth Ellen Brosseau became a candidate in the central Quebec riding of Berthier-Maskinongé, which she won handily in Monday’s election.

Allegations began surfacing this week that Brosseau’s nomination papers contained invalid signatures. Her Conservative rival in the election even called for a by-election over the issue.

But the Conservative party has since ruled out mounting the court challenge necessary to nullify Brosseau’s election. The Liberals appear to be following suit.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/987427--liberals-tories-won-t-challenge-nomination-papers-in-court?bn=1

We have another opposition party just like the government. Everything is legal when we say it is!

No more moral high ground just because the name is NDP. When we win we won. No matter how.

The more things change... Don't need to hear any more moral lectures.

[Ken Burch]

22. The Elections Canada ruling means there IS no grounds to challenge Brousseau's candidacy

Give it a rest...this proves there was never any reason to stop her being sworn in. It's silly to say that the NDP HAD to renounce Brousseau to retain moral legitimacy.

This is just about the Liberal and Conservative parties not being willing to accept that a working class woman(the sort of person THOSE parties NEVER nominate)won an election.

Ruth Ellen Brousseau's legitimacy as a candidate was never really in question at all. Nor is the NDP's morality.

[iverglas]

3. anybody remember the Tory MPs from Quebec in 1984?

Anybody ever been on a candidate search committee in a no-hope riding? ;)

You sometimes take anybody who can stand upright and read. This is a reality for all parties.

I remember during my first federal campaign, finishing a local TV debate, and just about getting bowled over by the Liberal and Conservative gentlemen running for the two chairs available in the make-up room to get their faces done. When they left and I got my turn, I sat down just as the anchor breezed into have his done. He uttered an expletive, and said: What a doorknob that Tory is!

I was the candidate handler in my riding in the provincial election the year after I ran provincially. Ours was okay. The Liberal was a long-time MP who never got less than 50% of the vote. The PC candidate was a university student. I felt quite sorry for her. Had the Mulroney tide swept into that riding, yikes, she would have been the MP.

Anyhow, as far as signatures go, that should be easily enough sorted. It certainly would be a drag if it turned out that somebody got down to the wire and figured they could pull a fast one that wuold never matter ...

[Ken Burch]

5. This is just an organized Liberal Party tantrum

They STILL don't get it that the voters rejected them in favor of the NDP and they still don't get it that they won't ever be the main anti-Tory party again.

And they STILL see "uniting the Left" as everyone being obligated to defer to them...even though there's no reason to defer to them any longer.

I think this is basically the Seagram's talking.

[CHIMO]

6. You

Are probably right.

Reminds me of fence posts in Alberta being elected for the Conservatives. Just plain bunk.

[Bragi]

7. My prediction re: the NDP

Before the next election happens, the NDP Quebec caucus will split from the rest of the caucus and possibly rebrand themselves as something other than NDP.

I think this will happen because the Quebec NDP MPs are 60 per cent of the caucus, and they will eventually balk at being dictated to by a party mostly comprised of people outside Quebec, but with very few members within the province.

What will drive the wedge will be nationalist issues arising from the likely election of a new referendum-committed PQ government in two years time.

You read it here first, folks. Just another service of the DU Canada forum.

[CanSocDem]

8. Or....

...they could put petty differences aside and discuss how, as official opposition, they can best utilize the new platform for their shared social values.

You know....Canadian values.

.

[Bragi]

9. Yeah right, like that's going to happen

I personally think the election of a PQ government and a soverignity referendum will blow the NDP caucus apart.

I'd be happy to see things turn out otherwise, I'm not confident they will.

[CanSocDem]

10. Yeh, well....

...I know it's hard to be upbeat. I thought I would have to kill myself when Wall was elected here.

My old high school principal, more famous as an NDP MP in the early 70's, told me today, when I asked him for 'the silver lining' in all of this, "I don't think there is one. I'll probably be dead from a heart attack or another stroke before we recover from this...."

Of course he's pushing 90 so that is possible. But it did strike me as too negative. We lamented the lack of a physical presence from our candidate and the lack of signs and debates. It was if nobody wanted to fight when we had them on the ropes.....

We're relatively young....and I'm sure we're going to soon be a lot angrier. Anyway it's not as if we live in the USA. We have hope.

.

[Bragi]

11. And who might that MP have been?

I ask because I was involved with the NDP from 1977-82 and just curious who that might have been.

On being upbeat, actually, I don't feel as bad about the Harper majority as I thought I would. Maybe I'm still in denial.

[CanSocDem]

12. I think the constituency was called Meadow Lake then....

...N.Sk....Nesdoly.

[IntravenousDemilo]

14. The NDP really have to organize the party on the provincial level as well.

And they have to do it soon, while the bloom is still on the rose. A well-organized provincial party in Quebec could give the PQ the willies.

[shockedcanadian]

18. Rookie NDP MP Brosseau cleared by Elections Canada

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/05/06/pol-ndp-brosseau.html


Elections Canada has cleared the way for Ruth Ellen Brosseau to take on her new job as a Quebec MP — for a riding she lives nowhere near — after questions about her nomination papers.

"The result of the election is valid and stands unless the court rules otherwise," Elections Canada spokesman John Enright told CBC News.

Questions were raised in the wake of Monday's election about whether Brosseau's nomination papers were valid after one man on the list of electors said he didn't remember providing his signature and that a signature purported to be his wife's didn't look like hers. The signatures of 100 residents of a riding are required for a candidate to be nominated.

The Conservative candidate in the Berthier-Maskinonge riding, Marie-Claude Godue, wanted a byelection called after reports first surfaced. Now that Elections Canada has given the green light to Brosseau, Godue would have to go to court to try to get the result overturned.

A request to the Superior Court of Quebec to contest the election has to be done within 30 days of the election result being validated.

With the voting results validated by Elections Canada, it is official that Brosseau, the now former restaurant and bar manager who speaks little French, won the riding by 5,735 votes.

Brosseau was in the spotlight even before she pulled off her surprising victory. She took a vacation to Las Vegas and barely mounted a campaign. She lives in Ottawa, hours away from the riding she now represents, which is mainly francophone. The NDP has said they will work with the young woman to improve her French. They are not permitting her to speak to the media.

There is little information in Brosseau's biography on the NDP website, other than her interest in rescuing injured animals, her diploma in advertising from St. Lawrence College, and that she works as an assistant manager at a restaurant.

That restaurant, Oliver's Pub on the campus of Carleton University, is now hiring. A job posting appeared online Thursday for a manager position, and comes with a salary between $38,000 and $53,000.

It's not clear whether that's the job Brosseau is leaving — but the one she's got now on Parliament Hill will give her a $157,000 annual paycheque, plus expenses.

[Ken Burch]

23. Why is the salary for MP's in question all of a sudden?

And ONLY in the case of NDP MP's? It's not as if the Tories and Liberals aren't getting the same pay.

There's no good reason to go after the NDP over it's mp's being PAID, for God's sake. It's not an issue.

[CHIMO]

24. New NDP MP Brosseau embellished resumé

The newly elected NDP MP best known for managing a bar before winning a seat in the House of Commons is facing more controversy, this time over whether she lied on her resumé.

Ruth Ellen Brosseau, who won the Quebec riding of Berthier-Maskinongé without ever having set foot in it, says in her biography on the NDP website that she "has a diploma in Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications from St. Lawrence College in Kingston."

The college, however, says that's not true. A spokesman said Brosseau was a student, but did not complete her diploma. They would not give the length of time she was a student.

"We can confirm that Ruth Ellen Brosseau is not a graduate of St. Lawrence College," Gord MacDougall, vice-president of student and external affairs, said in an email to CBC News.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/05/10/pol-ndp-brosseau.html
May 10, 2011 1:53 PM ET