Todd Doherty turns on Erin O'Toole
Plus: Caves, train tours and ski hills
Yesterday’s newsletter had an incorret link to the story about mayor Simon Yu criticizing the chosen downtown civic core plan. Here’s the right one.
I was reading this story about (federal) Conservative organizer Jenni Byrne targeting former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole. This will come around to Prince George, soon, but first the context:
On Sunday, O'Toole wished Liberal MP and cabinet minister Anita Anand well, following her announcement that she would not run in the next federal election.
Anand was a former defence minister, and O'Toole served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 12 years. He was also the leader of the Opposition during her time as minister.
On Sunday, O'Toole wished Liberal MP and cabinet minister Anita Anand well, following her announcement that she would not run in the next federal election.
Anand was a former defence minister, and O'Toole served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 12 years. He was also the leader of the Opposition during her time as minister.
Two hours later, Byrne reposted O'Toole's words and added: "For anyone unsure why Erin is no longer leader of the Conservative Party…. [Anand] supported DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] policies like name, rank and pronouns. Tampons in men's rooms, etc."
…
Her comments spurred a sea of responses, including some critical Conservative responses. One Liberal minister called them "classless," while a Liberal staffer noted the difference between this Conservative response and previous examples.
While some did not like this response, others piggybacked on top of it and further turned on O’Toole. Lead among them, Prince George-Cariboo MP Todd Doherty who wrote:
"Like Christy Clark, Erin O'Toole also bought a CPC membership and pretended to be a Conservative.”
This kind of surprised me because I seem to remember Doherty speaking rather highly of O’Toole in the past (it’s also worth noting that O’Toole was a Conservative MP in 2012, three years before Doherty would get elected). And I was right! Doherty endorsed O’Toole for leader of the party in 2017 (the year Andrew Scheer became leader). That level of confidence didn’t last, apparently, because by 2020 Doherty was endorsing Peter MacKay, though he didn’t complain publicly when O’Toole won. In fact, he was fairly open with his praise, telling the Citizen: "Erin's a good friend of mine and a colleague, I've known him for the last five years and I'm excited to work with him as our leader." Later that year, Doherty was appointed by O’Toole as his special advisor on mental health and wellness, in part based on Doherty’s efforts to get PTSD treatment for first responders. Here’s what Doherty said then:
Doherty said it was O'Toole, then the minister of veterans' affairs, who first helped him get the issue on the table in Parliament.
"He's the very first person I reached out to... he gave me my first soap box, so to speak," Doherty said. "He allowed me to sub in for him in his committee... he allowed to me to come in and questions the experts, and really challenge the experts."
Now, he’s publicly criticizing him on social media for… congratulating another MP on their retirement. Quite the turn.
Caves and trains
Over the holidays I learned two cool things.
The first, thanks to these Citizen stories (first, second) is that there are tours where you take a Via Rail train out to McBride and then a bus back to Prince George while stopping at and learning about the old rail towns along the way. I actually just bought a copy of the British Columbia Magazine which has a driving tour you can take yourself of the trip, which is cool, but doing it by train seems more authentic. Not suprisingly, it seems that since the publicity the future tours are selling out quickly, so hopefully I can get in on this at some point…
The other one, via Reddit user theabsurdturnip is this story about exploring the Close to the Edge cave about 160 km northeast of the city which is apparently the third deepest cave in Canada. I knew we had caves in the area people liked exploring but no idea of their scope. This one, however, I don’t think I’ll be exploring anytime soon. Still, very cool to learn about features around the city that I didn’t know were there.
Icy roads make for good skating
It’s been slick out there and the other day I noticed skate marks on my street. Apparently it’s not the only neighbourhood where this has been happening because Shane Giesinger posted this to Hell Yeah Prince George:
Adding to it was an offer from Precision Edge for free sharpening for anyone who took part.
This was pretty good
I’m not usually one for the snarky comments but it was a good setup-delivery.
Ski news
The province is looking for someone to run the Tabor Mountain ski area (while at the same time suing the previous operator), which is the first indication we’ve had in a while that one of our local hills (outside of the Hart) may be opening up again in the future. I haven’t heard anything about will be happening with Purden since the owner tragically died and that means we’ve been seeing more outreach from hills that are further afield. Aside from Powder King it seems most people are going to Troll Mountain near Quesnel to get that close-enough-to-take-the-kids-while-still having-multiple-run experience but Murray Ridge in Fort St. James is also reaching out with 50 per cent off for PG skiers later this month.
News roundup:
Prince George mayor heading to Taiwan after council approves trip to Smart City Summit Expo. “Taiwan would pay for mayor’s accommodations and reimburse him for his flights, meaning the trip would have no cost to Prince George taxpayers… According to a letter from Lihsin Angel Liu, director general of the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in Vancouver, attached to the meeting agenda, the summit “will bring together municipal leaders from around the world to exchange ideas on how cities can leverage innovation to create renewable and sustainable urban environments.”
Colleen Van Mook to end near decade-long run with Downtown PG in May.
Sabrina Angus taking the helm as Interim President and CEO of Prince George Airport Authority.
Tourism PG launching new initiative to attract people to local restaurants.
Camping reservations open for several PG-area provincial parks.
18 teams compete in 43rd annual Shas Ti Kelly Road Wrestling Tournament.
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Send feedback by emailing northerncapitalnews@gmail.com. Find me online at akurjata.ca.
Todd’s consumed the kool-aid. What are we even doing here if we can’t wish someone well? Disturbing how many people seem to think being mean is a desirable trait.
*SIGH*. I so dislike current politics where people are speaking and writing so low to capture a 15 second attention span. I mean, come on: congratulating someone on their retirement shouldn't turn into political mud-slinging, at the expense of other vulnerable groups, for votes.
I recently read about the negativity bias that humans (and probably many species) have cognitively. We pay attention to more of the bad news than the good, because of basic evolutionary wiring. It takes a minimum of five good encounters to offset the impact of one negative encounter.
My psychological wellbeing is trying to avoid the negative these days, but it sure is hard. I was sitting in Open Door Cafe on Friday (my day off) enjoying a latte and brunch wrap. A pair of women were sitting near me and one of them was loudly sharing her opinions and (dare I say) misinformation about the California fires, DEI, "woke-ism", "the Dems", and all the things I didn't expect to hear in the wild. I had to get up and leave, and it kind of left a scorch mark on my brain for the rest of the day.
Did I mention... *SIGH*?