Christian Conservative Christian "Independent"

I'm an evangelical Christian, member of the CPC, but presently & unjustly exiled to wander the political wilderness.
All opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

"Gotcha!" politics... I knew this day would come

I personally like Warren's views on times like this ... by all means guys, keep on firing your attacks my way. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I suggest you take another look at his books... these amatures could learn a few things from him.

Anyway, I guess it's time to answer a few questions that have been hanging out there over the last few days...

Why have I kept my identity under wraps on this blog? Because, and I'll repeat... "All opinions expressed here are solely my own, and not necessarily reflective of the views of the Party, its leadership, its general membership, my EDA, or my local Conservative candidate". So there.

I chose a long time ago that I would not use any position I held for my own purposes or agendas. When I serve the people of Canada, I do so at their pleasure, and as such, I have a responsiblity to ensure that their veiws are reflected properly. On that basis, I've never indicated any position that I've held on this blog. Yes, I have taken on certain responsibilities over the years in an effort to serve my fellow Canadians to the best of my ability, but I've done so in a manner that reflects the general views of the membership of whatever EDA I've been a part of... and there have been several different EDA's over the life of this blog. You can choose to believe me or not, but that's the truth.

You see, the Conservative Party of Canada is indeed a "Big Tent" party.  I've worked with lots of folks in various capacities... some who are Christians, some Muslims, atheists, agnostics, you name it.  Why are we, all people with differing opinions, working together as we do?  In an effort to make a better Canada for everyone... and not just for a select few, like the Liberal Party of Canada seems to do.

As I'm sure you've noticed by now, my views are not exactly "mainstream"... not even within my own party, despite what some of the liars may try to tell you. As such, I've never openly disussed my real identity. My reasoning is somewhat similar to Canadian Cynic's... I'd prefer not to have any nutbars showing up on my front door. But despite my best efforts, and thanks to some help from Liberal bloggers, I've already recieved one piece of hate mail. Not openly identifying myself has also allowed me to express the opinion of the 5%-10% of the Canadian population who describe themselves as "Evangelical"... people who believe the Bible in a more literal manner, and who view the political realm from that worldview. That worldview, of course, not in step with ANY of the major political parties in Canada. As a member of one of the major parties, and as a Bible-believing Christian, I wanted to be able to express my views, and the views of tens of thousands of other Canadians, in an open manner such as this... views that sometimes aren't welcome in any of the parties, and yet are held my members of both the Conservative and Liberal parties.

For the record, I've never "hidden" my identity. I've just never discssed it openly on my blog, and have been "hiding in plain sight", as it were. That's why I've always been comfortable enough to post my photo. In posting my photo, several local Liberals have IDed me, and I've never attempted to hide anything from them. I've also never had a problem revealing my identity to trustworthy people, including several promanent Liberal bloggers... Jason Cherniak, Warren Kinsella, CalgaryGrit, Stephen Taylor, Joanne Tintor, Dr. Roy, David Graham of cdlu and the Liblogs admin, etc. These are respectful individuals, who are able to rise above the "gotcha" smear politics from which I have sought to stay out of by hiding my identity. They're folks who I felt were able to rise above the partisan bickering, and actually dicuss ideas, and even work together towards a common goal. It was my pleasure to work together with Jason Cherniak and David Graham towards defeating MMP during the previous Ontario election. Several of us, I mean myself and several Liberals at a local Liberal event some weeks ago, were having fun talking about that. Wouldn't it be nice to see more of that on the blogs...

But, of course, I knew that one day, one of those "GOTCHA!" types would figure it all out, and would seek to try and stick my views to someone else. Congrats to Jeff Davidson for confirming my cynical outlook of most bloggers, on all ends of the spectrum.

So, thanks to good old gutter politics, here's my two cents to set the record straight, one last time... my views are my own. They do not reflect the views of the Party, my local EDA, nor anyone else in my general vicinity. I never have used any position I've held for my own purposes, or to further my own agendas. Any position I have held has been solely in the interest of serving my fellow Canadians to the best of my ability... and most of it, believe it or not, is about little more than taking care of all the paperwork.

By the way... some have asked why I refer to my location as being in "the GTA". For most Canadians, or my international readers of which I have several regulars, Toronto is the nearest major city. I've pretty much always lived within the sphere (and smog) of Toronto, and when people ask me where I'm from, I pretty much reply with, "I've grown up in and around Toronto". As such, I still consider myself a "GTAer".

Hope that clears a few things up. Now back to real life, where I've been for the past week or so, and from which I've been so rudely awakened...

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13 Comments:

  • At Mon Aug 25, 11:46:00 a.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Without taking sides, I did want to comment on the whole anonymity thing.

    I, personally, do not feel I require a pseudonym to discuss ideas. I stand behind what I believe in.

    That being said, I can think of two reasons why I would want to comment anonymously.

    One, I also serve on a Board of an organization here in Centre Wellington. It didn't take long before a discussion was required about how my "advocacy" could reflect on the Board. I believe we've come to an understanding.
    Two, (and this will probably effect me more than you, but still) I do worry about the possibility that just because I am the one proposing ideas they are dismissed on source alone, which is a terrible thing for democracy. But still I'm not ashamed of my libertarian views, and won't hide my identity.

    Anyway, at the end of the day, this will probably be nothing more than a to-each-their-own scenario

    That's my 3 cents, anyway

    Mike Wisniewski

     
  • At Mon Aug 25, 12:13:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Drew Costen said…

    There's a good reason to keep one's identity at least slightly anonymous, and that's the fact that more and more employers are doing Google searches as part of the hiring process. Now I'm not ashamed of any of my views, but there are enough people out there who might not want to risk hiring someone whose views are outside of the mainstream and who also happens to voice these opinions publicly.

    Also, avoiding hate mail and physical attacks from people who may disagree with you are good reasons as well. :)

     
  • At Mon Aug 25, 02:06:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    You might call this extreme but, and I know I'm gonna catch flak for this, there is a proverb I once heard and I hope I subscribe to it (I say "hope" because, thankfully, I've never had to put it to the test). It goes something to the effect that "if you have nothing worth dying for, you have nothing worth living for".

    In essence, if someone has a problem with what I'm saying, I say "Just Bring It"

    Mike Wisniewski

     
  • At Mon Aug 25, 02:14:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Drew Costen said…

    "if you have nothing worth dying for, you have nothing worth living for".

    Whether this is true or not, I still find caution to be the wiser course of action in many cases. :) There's a time for publicly standing for a principle and a time for anonymity, not every situation is equal.

     
  • At Mon Aug 25, 02:59:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It is interesting, I have known CC's identity for quite some time. It isn't hard to figure out. The GTA thing has always bothered me, if you're not commited to Guelph should you be the Pres. of the Con EDA? I don't know the answer but I do find it concerning personally.

     
  • At Mon Aug 25, 03:00:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    You may very well be right.

    Being pragmatic about it, you'll probably get maximum mileage finding a balance between eternally being the Ultimate Warrior on a warpath and forever being veiled behind secrecy hoping no one learns the truth.

    But then again, I don't think anyone ever accused me of being a pragmatist.

    Mike Wisniewski

     
  • At Mon Aug 25, 05:01:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger James Curran said…

    As I recall, you weren't worried about "gothcha politics" a year and a half ago.

    http://canadaconservative.blogspot.com/search?q=curran

    Not that I considered it a cheapshot or anything. Many of your Conservative Blogger friends continue to pile on even though...

    http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080731/curran_charges_080731/20080731/

    And yet, I still find the time not to be anonymous.

     
  • At Mon Aug 25, 05:29:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    The internet is full of cowards who hide behind the mask of the internet. I have far more respect for those who actually put themselves completely out there to be accountable for what they write.

    Unfortunately when you decide to take on a public role this has an influence on other areas of one's life. I can tell you after twenty years of being out there, you can't divide your public world into boxes with disclaimers that what you say does not represent the views of whoever

    I have to watch what I write because I have to take into account the other roles I have.

    But of course, I'm someone you'd damn to hell, or picket the funeral of, so my opinion isn't really worth that much.

    Brian Finch

     
  • At Mon Aug 25, 09:35:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    Brian, I don't "damn" anyone to hell... that's not my place. Nor do I picket, nor condone those who picket at funerals.

    James, if I recall, I toned down my comments soon after making them... and if I didn't say it before, I'm glad things got cleared up for you. My post back then, if I recall, was pointing out the irony of the situation occuring right before what appeared to be an imminent election call.

     
  • At Tue Aug 26, 09:13:00 a.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Gotcha politics? If you don't like that sort of thing why have you consistently participated in it?

    You hide when you are ashamed of who you are or what you are up to.

    I don't have a blog site....so all I can do at this point is place my name at the end of this.

    You've been caught being a phony, you've been caught in a double-standard and you are a hypocrite.

    So, you can come up with all the excuses you want - it doesn't work.

    Shame on you.

    Lyn

     
  • At Tue Aug 26, 09:22:00 a.m. EDT, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    Try again Lyn... I don't play "GOTCHA" games, I was calling out certain Liberal bloggers over the last few weeks for running a psudo-smear campaign at arms length on behalf of their candidate.

    But of course, in typical Liberal fashion, they try to deflect legitimate critisim by attacking the one who's calling them out. That's perhaps the clearest form of "GOTCHA" politics out there.

     
  • At Tue Aug 26, 10:07:00 a.m. EDT, Blogger Drew Costen said…

    Okay guys, I've known CC for many, many years (we went to the same church for ages), and he's actually a pretty good guy. Yes, he's conservative, but nobody's perfect. :)

     
  • At Wed Sep 17, 10:34:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Robert McClelland said…

    "All opinions expressed here are solely my own, and not necessarily reflective of the views of the Party, its leadership, its general membership, my EDA, or my local Conservative candidate".

    You're a naive little fellow.

    Jason Cherniak, Warren Kinsella...These are respectful individuals, who are able to rise above the "gotcha" smear politics

    Oh my, it's terminal.

     

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