The Dissidents' Strike Back...

Last weekend, embattled BC Conservative Leader John Cummins lashed out at his detractors within his Party and told them to "line up behind him" or resign Wednesday (Oct 10th) by noon

Then on Tuesday, the dissidents' decided to write an open letter of their own stating that John Cummins must resign on Friday or see donors withhold making donations to the BC Conservative Party - read more here

Open Letter from BC Conservative 'dissidents':

Dear Mr. Cummins, Leader of the B.C. Conservatives and Mr. Siebring, Party President,

The last several months have been stressful for all B.C. Conservatives. More recently, after the AGM, the approach of "unifying" the party by exorcising and excommunicating the "dissident" members has been especially disconcerting for those of us who have found ourselves described as "dissidents" and who appear to have made the enemies list.

There has been no organized effort to remove you. Individual CA's operating on their own began to get the feeling that you were disinterested in their concerns and, in many cases that in fact it was your intent to replace them. This has been reinforced by your minions by email. This feeling was intensified by middlemen reported to speak on your behalf. We never knew if these confusing, contradictory verbal missives were with your blessing or the articulation of confused and uninformed individuals simply making claims to be representing you. We did not know then and we don't know now because there was not then or now a clear chain of command that we have been asking for.

We never got to know you John, but whatever the case, the buck stops with you.

And now there are at least 20 CA presidents who are asking you to resign. We acknowledge your legitimate win at the AGM and given the manner in which it was organized, you could hardly lose. Be that as it may, we too represent our CA's and we too have a legitimate voice in all of this. And while you may argue that we have no right to challenge your legitimacy as head of the party, you have no right to challenge our legitimacy as heads of the CA's and call us "dissidents" and then ask us to leave the party. WE ARE THE PARTY.

Your way of unifying the party by first deciding who the "dissidents" were, and then finding reasons to expel them is beyond the pale. Is this truly the best you can do?

Our letter is the result of a groundswell of CA presidents who did not know each other, but found each other by circumstance and discovered a common theme in the shortcomings of your leadership.

The division that has occurred within the B.C. Conservatives has occurred under your watch. This division has cost us our only sitting MLA and the possibility of having others who were ready to cross. These missed opportunities cannot be undone. However, with a new leader, we can start to win back the support of British Columbians who are tired of the arrogance of the BC Liberals and recognize that the B.C. NDP will be disastrous for our economy.

In short, we want you to know we are NOT leaving-but we ask, for the sake of the party, that you do.

Sincerely,

Allison Patton, CA President Surrey-White Rock and Ariane Eckardt, CA President Burnaby North

Meanwhile - Global BC has a video clip on the continuing public saga within the BC Conservatives':



Finally - Alan Forseth, Kamloops and area Regional Director for the BC Conservatives' speaks to this item as well here

For myself - this is only a long line of examples of why BC Conservatives' should not be government in BC on May 14th, 2013.  If they can't solve their own party internal issues without them becoming public, how would they govern the province?  Would we see daily Cabinet Minister(s) battle it out because of personalities, just like the current BC Conservative public fight is really about