New Brunswick Conservative member of parliament Greg Thompson – who isn’t planning on running for re-election – says that Conservative cabinet minister Keith Ashfield is sitting on pork announcements for New Brunswick in an effort to influence the provincial election in September.
Canwest is reporting:
"(Ashfield) stated very clearly, with his own lips to me, 'We're not going to be carrying the province on our backs to the next election.' And, of course, I took exception to that and I'm just wondering who he's attempting to punish," said Thompson, who says he is not running in the next federal election.
Thompson said he suspects Ashfield is defending his chief of staff Fred Nott, who suggested in an e-mail to hold off on approving funding in Thompson's riding until after Sept. 27, the date of the provincial election.
Hmmm.
A fight within the Conservative party?
A family feud as it were.
Sounds vaguely familiar.
Come to think of it, New Brunswick provincial Conservative leader David Alward might want to be careful about having what UNB political scientist David Desserud called “some of that Danny Williams magic” rub off. Desserud made the comment after Alward took a taxpayer funded partisan campaign hop across to see the Old Man recently.
Alward might well have been thinking how nice it would be to get the rumoured version of the Danny Williams effect. But truth be told, the the real Danny Williams Effect can be a bit more like something you pick up on a planet in Star Trek: The Original Series. You know: the stuff that makes your hands all itchy and then Sulu comes at you with an epee right before some whack-job belts out another chorus of ‘I’ll take you home again Kathleen.”
Maybe poor Dave got the actual Danny political mojo instead of what he hoped for.
And then: poof!
Instant family feud.
Ouch.
That has got to hurt.
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