Pham quits!

Hung Pham, the MIA MLA, has decided not to run in the next provincial election. Citing disgust in the way that the party has treated his riding association, Pham announced his decision in a letter to the provincial Progressive Conservative party. It's now up to the riding association to either call a nomination meeting or have Ed Stelmach appoint someone to be the candidate. It is interesting to note that the article states that Stelmach would not have appointed Pham.

Now Pham is no great loss to the Tories. Despite claims by the riding association to the contrary, Pham was pretty much a useless MLA. He, or his executive assistant would rarely respond to letters, and when they did, it was often months after the issue became moot. His attendance was the worst of any MLA in the legislature. As an example in one session the legislature held nine recorded votes. Pham managed to drag himself in for four of them. Even now, as a sitting MLA, it's reported that he's in Vietnam, meaning he couldn't even be bothered to be in the country to announce his retirement.

It is also interesting to note that Montrose PC riding association treasurer and nomination chair, Frank Warkentin, is married to Lynn Warkentin, who was the returning officer last election and has been re-appointed for the next election. So we have the returning officer, the public official who is responsible for the final count of the ballots, being in the immediate family of someone who is deep inside the Tory machine. No conflict of interest there. It's no wonder that when I was door knocking in the riding last election I had people (Conservative supporters no less) telling me that they were hoping for a fair election.

Anyhow, it will be interesting to see what the Tories do in the riding. Given the low voter turn out, the riding could conceivably be had by any candidate that can simply get the vote out, as Pham managed to pull a whopping 3200ish votes out of 30 000 ish voters, which gave him 51% of the vote. It remains to be seen if a new Tory candidate can revitalize interest in the party in the riding, or if the Tory voters will join the rest of the voters in the riding and just stay home on election day. If that's the case, it would bad for the Tories indeed.