Monday, May 05, 2008

Charles Caccia: career ended by Martin, life ended by stroke

I’m guessing there will be some throat-clearing and dagger looks amongst former and current Liberal MPs when they attend the visitation and funeral of their former colleague, Liberal MP Charles Caccia, who died this weekend from the complications of a stroke.

Caccia was one of the lower-profile victims of the Paul Martin steamroller. In 2004 he was the longest-serving Member of Parliament, having been MP for Davenport since 1968. He lost the nomination, however, to then Toronto city councillor Mario Silva. This occurred thanks to Paul Martin’s opening of nominations after finally wresting the Liberal leadership from Jean Chrétien’s vise grip in 2003. Unlike Sheila Copps – who put up a spirited fight against Tony Valeri in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek – Caccia had no chance against the ambitious Silva, who had been signing up new members for months.

I happened to be president of the Davenport Conservative association when all this was going down. The head of our candidate selection committee thought we should, as a courtesy, approach the defenestrated Caccia and inquire whether he would be interested in running for the Conservatives. Caccia agreed to meet with us at his constituency office, and cordially informed us that he intended to run as an independent. In the end, he decided to retire quietly from Parliament.

Update: Nicol DuMoulin also has a post, on his experiences as Caccia's constituent.

2 comments:

Nicol DuMoulin said...

Thanks for posting this. I lived in the Davenport riding for the last years of Caccia's tenure. I have nothing good to say about him and wrote a post about it. Based on my experience, he was a career politician who got elected based on exploiting his Italian-Catholic heritage and then going hard-left in parliament.

I tried contacting him on several occasions and never even got a form response.

I hope he is in a better place.

Anonymous said...

I want to know why the MSM in Canada said nothing about a Cicaine bust on a CSL ship in July of 2004.

The RCMP and CBS didn't lay charges because the Cocaine was believed to have been planted there.

Right.......just try that excuse at the Fort Erie border if 1 ounce of marijuana is found "Hidden" on your Car by a Drug Smuggling ring exploiting your good nature and innocence.

Meanwhile in Toronto I'm being threatened with Legal action by the Tax Dept for $1200.00 from the previous year income,but I was filing for a 2400.00 refund and wanted to save Tax dollars by letting the Computer adjust the refund down after the 1200.00 is taken off.....but no, the Privacy ACT would not let the Collection wing talk to the Filing wing so I had to send the money and then file 2 Tax forms .
I got one one letter showing the payment and another later on for the filing , then another letter for the new Tax filing and a refund check for $2400.00 .

Canada is a great Country if you're a rich/white/liberal with ties to the federal Government and the RCMP.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20040701/martin_cocaine_040701/20040701/