Bouquets of Gray

buckets · at 5/05/2009 04:31:00 pm

BCL points out that the Western Business and Taxpayers Association, a recently formed separatist group, is calling on its supporters to send in their pledged donations. David Crutcher, the WBTA's Executive Director, wrote them yesterday (see the screen cap at BCL).

I know it has been some time since we have contacted you and quite frankly that is because many of you have promised to lend your support, but have not done so.

The tone might be a little off. Saying something like "We've not contacted you because you've failed us. (Bad supporters! bad! bad!)" is unlikely to strengthen their bonds to the organization. Funny that.

Still, Crutcher's plea makes what he posted on the Blogging Tories discussion board in December a little more interesting. There he claimed that the WBTA had raised oodles of cash: $200,000. Here's a screen cap:

Now, it is unclear whether this $200,000 is money that was actually collected or merely pledged, or even a figment of someone's imagination. But if it is pledges that remain unsent, that would surely explains Crutcher's crankiness. Those no-good separatist supporters have bilked him out of some serious change!

Other posts in this series:

buckets · at 4/24/2009 09:47:00 am

For a short time in December a new western separatist group emerged, though its rollout was marred by a series of missteps that I chronicled at the time (here). Several unsuitable characters were recruited for its council:

its BC chair had to be removed over "incompatible philosophies" (here: apparently it had to do with his views on race war and political assassination)
one policy chair resigned when problems with his claims about his experience emerged (here and here)
the next policy chair claimed a degree from a diploma mill (here)

In the meantime, apparently its all gone stale. The webpage seems not to have been updated in months, no progress seems to have been reached in filling vacancies in the council, and their founding convention has been forgotten.

Here is their convention page as of this morning (here):

The date, of course, is noteworthy. The convention is supposed to start today. Given that as of this morning "prices and location are yet to be determined" one assumes that it did not happen.

Apparently it has been postponed or forgotten.

Other posts in this series:

buckets · at 1/15/2009 08:30:00 pm

The new Western Business and Taxpayers Association (WBTA) is a new separatist organization dedicated to creating a separate state in western Canada, first surfacing in early December. It recently revealed its new policy chair, Rob Allen, who (as BCL points out) seems to have a degree from a diploma mill. (One wonders whether the WBTA foresees its new state having a policy against credential fraud. Perhaps the policy chair has a position on this.)

There is another noteworthy point in Mr. Allen's profile, here:

Mr. Allen claims to be a member of the federal Conservative Party.

It is odd how many separatists there are among the Conservatives, as we have pointed out before:

David Crutcher, the Executive Director of the group, blithely reports his membership in the Conservative Party in his profile (see here, which I discussed here);
Eric Gregson, who is chairing the group's founding convention, is a prominent Conservative (see here) who seems close to Harper (here);
a few years ago, Gordon Stamp was forced to resign as campaign manager for Conservative MP Peter Goldring after his separatist postings on the internet became known (see here);
Bert Brown, whom Harper subsequently appointed to the senate, attended the founding convention of the Alberta Independence Party in 2001 and is quoted as having wished that group 'every success' (reports here and here).

Now, it is perfectly understandable that western separatists (whose politics tend to be conservative) would have once belonged to the Reform, Alliance, and then Conservative Parties. But I can't be the only one who is struck at how matter-of-factly these people can identify themselves as separatists and claim membership in the CPC -- the CPC is (after all) a federalist party.

This all raises the question: what are these people doing in the Conservative Party of Canada? why does the CPC allow this? and more importantly, why do they feel comfortable there?

Other posts in this series:

buckets · at 1/04/2009 11:08:00 am

Those who followed my posts on the new Alberta separatist group, the Western Business and Taxpayers Association, may be interested to hear the latest rumour: that Sheldon Johnston (whom I've discussed before) has resigned as policy chair. So, at least a rumour mentioned at Project Alberta (here), as reported by BCL (here)

Given that he has commented on this blog in the past, perhaps he will stop by to clarify.

Update. Sheldon Johnston has announced that he will not be policy chair in the comments to Leigh Patrick Sullivan's blog.

Update 2. Dan Doherty has now confirmed this. He sent me this email and asked me to publish it:

Recently there has been some confusion in regards to Sheldon Johnson's resignation; I would like to take this opportunity to clear it up. Sheldon Johnson has now sent the WBTA correspondence resigning his position as policy chair.

Given the circumstances, we regrettably accept his resignation. We expect Sheldon to return in the near future and we will keep you posted when this takes place.

We wish Sheldon and his family the absolute best; our door will always be open for him.

Warmest Regards
Daniel W. Doherty
Vice-President
Western Business and Taxpayers Association

buckets · at 12/20/2008 06:20:00 am

BCL points out some problems with the profile of WBTA policy chair, Sheldon Johnston, which claims that Johnston filed a complaint against the Forces over his rejection for its champlaincy program.

The problem? Johnston didn't win the case, as he claims. It was dismissed because he consistently disregarded its deadlines and seems to have lost interest in the case (read the details in the tribunal ruling). Nor does he seem to be correct in his claim that the case paved the way for others: there was already a Muslim chaplain appointed before the Tribunal had dealt with his case (CBC story here). Johnston's complaint did attract some attention, it was profiled in a lengthy feature in Christian Weekly (a copy is archived behind the thumb-nail to the right, and here), but it seems that no one in the military or the church community or the press regarded his complaint was valid. One thing is clear Johnston was not rejected because he was a Pentacostal, as he claimed — there were (as the Christian Weekly story makes clear) other Pentacostal chaplains in the Forces. Rather, it seems that he was rejected because he was underqualified and openings were few.

Update. Rev. Johnston points out a National Post article on his complaint that he regards as fairer to himself which I've dug up and archived here for your reading pleasure.

There are, in any case, other oddities in his profile. Here is a snippit:

As you can see, the profile claims that after earning his Th.M. Johnston served as a minister of Grace Presbyterian Church in Castlegar in 2003-4.

The published proceedings of the 2004 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (pdf here, p. 585), however, reports the dissolution of Grace congregation in Castlegar on Nov. 14, 2003, and the proceedings of 2003 (pdf here, p. 668) report the Grace pastorage as 'vacant'. Both proceedings include a lengthy address list of all the denomination's professional church workers. In neither is a Sheldon Johnston listed.

Now, I'm sure there's an innocent explanation for this. But at the very least this speaks to a carelessness on the part of Rev. Johnston, something that is not a good thing in a policy chair.

Update. Rev. Johnston's profile has been removed. Here is what it looks like at 1 pm on Saturday, Dec. 20:

Presumably a new version will eventually appear here.

buckets · at 12/20/2008 12:17:00 am

WBTA VP Dan Doherty:

buckets · at 12/18/2008 08:18:00 pm

Apparently I pumped the story of the dumping of Ernest Slump just a little too soon. WBTA VP Dan Doherty writes to assure me that there was in fact no internal coup, merely a slight snafu updating the website. (He didn't actually do it grumpily -- he was quite friendly -- but I couldn't resist the rhyme.)

He also asked that I inform my regular readers of the WBTA's position vis-a-vis Slump's controversial statements.

This letter is in response to the recent comments circulating regarding Ernie Slump. The Western Businesses and Taxpayers Association does not support any offensive remarks and or actions, particularly regarding ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation. David Crutcher and our Council have contacted Ernie to provide him with a forum to explain his comments.

Our policy is one of inclusion and we deeply apologize to anyone this may have offended. I will keep you up to date of any new developments.

We greatly appreciate you bringing this to our attention and I look forward to any comments or questions you may have.

Warmest Regards

Dan Doherty
Vice President
Western Businesses & Taxpayers Association.
Email: vp@itstimetogo.ca

We thank Mr. Doherty for this clarification. Nonetheless, I have one concern. So far, four offensive remarks have been attributed to Mr. Slump.

his observation that "the White man" is better at killing than other races (here),
his stated desire to exclude Vancouver from a new western Canadian state (here)
a call for all Liberals to be executed (here),
his offer to point out Liberals to invading marksmen (here)

Now, given the WBTA's commitment to inclusion in matters of ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation, we can probably assume that:

white men will be thankful no longer to be considered especially homocidal.
Vancouverites (an ethnicity? I suppose in a stretch) will be glad that the WBTA does not want to discriminate against them

I'm troubled, however, that the WBTA has chosen not to include Liberals among the protected minorities in their new regime.

This is surely an oversight that the WBTA will correct soon.

(Comments open.)

buckets · at 12/18/2008 03:52:00 pm

To judge from the webpage of the executive council at the WBTA there's been an enormous shake-up. All of the old councillors were gone, including controversial BC-chair, Ernie Slump! (On whom see here and here and here) Crutcher seems to have expelled them all and installed a new Saskatchewan chair!

(Or it could be a clumsy web-administrator. Stay tuned!)

UPDATE. The dumping of Slump has been bumped! Apparently Ernie Slump is still BC chair; the others councillors are returned to their positions! What a difference 15 minutes can make!

buckets · at 12/17/2008 07:24:00 pm

Returning to Erik Gregson, who will be Chair of the founding convention for the WBTA (thumb-nail to the right).

As we have seen, Gregson came out as a separatist on his radio show in 2005. By this point he had an impressive history within the Reform, Alliance, and now Conservative Party, according to the profile on his WBTA page:

Erik got involved in the Reform Party in 1993 and has since sat on various boards for both the Reform Party and the Canadian Alliance …

During his time in the Canadian Alliance, Erik has been a key planner, organizer and moderator of three Alberta Policy Conferences. …

Over the past 15 years Erik has been involved in numerous political campaigns for other candidates. On April 16, 2003 Erik was the Chief Returning Officer for Stephen Harper's nomination.

Given his resumé, it is not particularly surprising that in 2004 (only a year before coming out as a separatist), his prospects within the party were good enough that he sought the nomination of the federal riding of Macleod. Nomination would have guaranteed his election, since Macleod is one of the safest Conservative seats in the country.

In the end, however, Gregson lost the nomination to Ted Menzies, Macleod's current MP. He made a race of it though, especially after he was endorsed by Stephen Harper (who was then campaigning for the leadership of the newly merged Conservative party). Below is the story from Ft. Macleod's local paper, the Western Wheel from Feb. 18, 2004.

A few points deserve special attention. Harper's endorsement was regarded as unusual at the time, and is explained by Gregson's earlier support for Harper and by the fact that he was Harper's personal friend.

The Western Wheel from Feb. 18, 2004 (vol. 29, no. 29, via archive.org).

Other posts in this series:

buckets · at 12/17/2008 10:35:00 am

The WBTA has appointed as their BC Chair a certain Ernest Slump. As we have seen (here), Slump has rather disturbingly called for the execution of all Liberal officials and ex-officials.

This isn't the only disturbing thing that he's written. Even worse are his views on race (thumb-nail below and to the right; google-cached here):

Given that Slump is a western separatist, no one should be surprised that he holds views that are politically incorrect. But regarding "the White man" as congenitally superior, as this passage shows, is more than a little worrying. That he includes within that superiority a belief that whites are better at killing their enemy is simply astonishing.

Now, the WBTA should feel uncomfortable having someone with these views as a member. To have him as their official face in British Columbia is unthinkable. Did they do any vetting at all of their council?

Update. More about Slump at BCL: Slump doesn't want all of BC to separate, Vancouver will apparently be left out.

Update 2. The WBTA informs BCL that they are asking Slump for clarification.

Other posts in this series:

buckets · at 12/16/2008 08:32:00 pm

The Western Business and Taxpayers Association council is slowly taking shape. They may, however, want to rethink their BC Chair, who at the moment is Ernie Slump. As BCL has pointed out, Slump is the publisher of Truckspeaker magazine (which has the dubious distinction of having the ugliest website I've ever seen).

He also has anger management issues, at least if he's the Ernest Slump who called for the execution of all Liberals a couple Christmas's ago. His whole screed can be seen via Google-cache, here, but here is the most unbalanced bit:

Now, I'm sure that there are many in this country whose heads are filled with voices saying bad things. But its best not to repeat what they say in public.

In the meantime one wonders whether the WBTA might not have another member in British Columbia who may be more suitable.

(The whole thing can be read in the screencap behind the thumb-nail to the right.)

buckets · at 12/15/2008 02:53:00 pm

Over at BCL, Ti-guy has a question about this passage from the profile of Erik Gregson at the new separatist site, the Western Business and Taxpayer Association (I've corrected the typo).

Ti-Guy's question:

Erik Gregson "lost belief" in Canada in 2005? Disregarding the mental retardation manifested in that statement, I wonder what was the final straw?An interesting question, Ti-guy. What would be especially helpful is if we knew exactly when this happened. Or, better still, a copy of his statement. Something like this:

Now, as you can see the date of the program is June 18 2005. What was going on in mid-June 2005? Two names come to mind. Stronach and Grewal. Which (as you may have guessed) makes this blogger nostalgic for happy times.

Other posts in this series:

buckets · at 12/15/2008 11:03:00 am

For those tuning in late, the new separatist organization the Western Business and Taxpayers Association has announced the date of its founding convention (here) and its chairman, ErikGregson.

Along with this comes a fancy new biographical sketch for the chairman -- well, actually not so new. As you can see in the graphic below, the new biography (here) is almost entirely a copy-and-paste from Gregson's profile at the Radio Freedom Network (here).

I say almost completely because as you'll see some (but not all) time periods have been recalculated, and a new paragraph on Gregson's conversion to separatism has been added.

The result is not quite confidence inspiring. Several minor errors were introduced into the copy:

Gregson is said to have "strated" a business in the second paragraph
Gregson has been turned from a "cub scout leader" into a "club scout leader" in the final paragraph
"separatist" is misspelt (you'd think that a separatist group could spell this word correctly!)

Those last two mistakes are especially odd, given that this was surely a copy-and-paste. How do you insert mistakes like that in a copy-and-paste? Fat fingers, I guess.

Now, typographical errors are easy to make, and criticizing them is pretty lame.

Given, however, that Alberta separatists a few years ago expressed the ambition for Alberta to acquire nuclear submarines, the question Albertans have to ask themselves is whether these are the fingers you want near the trigger?

Update. Big City Liberal notes another screw-up: the WBTA seems to have lost its policy chair.

Other posts in this series:

buckets · at 12/14/2008 06:01:00 pm

The new separatist group, the Western Business and Taxpayers Association, apparently met yesterday to choose their council. Only rumours, so far. But high-level sources have sent me the following screenshot, which says that their convention will be held on January 30-31st and its chairman, Erik Gregson (whose involvement with this group we've already noted here).

It's already been noted that the WBTA council is still secret, with only the name of its executive director David Crutcher known (here). Gregson's email in the above screenshot is policy@itstimetogo.ca, so we can assume that he will be the group's policy chair.

More as it comes in.

Update. The convention page has now gone live here.

Other posts in this series:

buckets · at 12/11/2008 05:37:00 pm

Conservatives were outraged two weeks ago when the Liberals and NDP planned to form a coalition and the Bloc Quebecois pledged to support if for 18 months. Indeed, Harper himself, in his five-minute televised address to the nation on December 2, mentioned “separatists” four times: “This is no time for backroom deals with the separatists”.

In response Saskatchewan blogger, Buckdog, asks an important question: If Harper And The Conservatives HATE Separatists ... (the Quebecois version) ... Why Don't They Also Condemn Western Separatists? A fair question, as I'm sure anyone would admit.

Another question. Wouldn't it be best if the Conservative Party restricted its membership to non-separatists? A case in point: David Crutcher is the Executive Director of the new separatist Western Business and Taxpayers Association. His profile on the WBTA's website happily identifies him as federal Conservative. Here's the screenshot:

Nor is Crutcher the only one.

A few years ago, Gord Stamp was forced to resign as campaign manager to Alberta MP Peter Goldring when it was revealed that he'd been espousing separatism on the internet.
In 2001, two Alliance MPs attended the founding convention of the Alberta Independence Party (on which here)
Bert Brown (who was at that time one of Alberta's "senators-in-waiting") attended the same meeting~~, actually spoke to its delegates,~~* and is quoted as wishing them "every success" (reports here and here and in many places in the printed press). Harper appointed Brown to the senate in July, 2007.

The question, then should not be whether or when Harper will criticize western separatists. It's whether and when he'll kick them out of his own party.

here

Other posts in this series:

buckets · at 12/11/2008 04:40:00 pm

Over at the Blogging Tories a few days ago, Western Separatist David Crutcher claimed to have raised oodles of cash and that his new separatist group counts former MPs among its supporters (here's a screen cap):

The BTs, to their credit, were mostly unenthusiastic. In any case skepticism is in order. The claim to fund-raising cash is a little bit hard to believe, but let's leave that aside, since it is unlikely that the WBTA's funding will ever be transparent enough that this could be proven or disproven.

The claim to have the support former MPs, on the other hand, is striking, since these should eventually come forward to support the group. Who could they be?

Two names that come to mind are Myron Thompson and Darrel Stinson, who caused a bit of a scandal back in 2001 when they attended the founding convention of the Alberta Independence Party. (See an old essay of Andrew Coyne criticizing them for this archived here.)

Regardless of whether these are the former MPs who support Crutcher's new group, it'll be interesting to hear who else is involved in this new separatist group.

Other posts in this series:

buckets · at 12/10/2008 06:02:00 pm

Erik Gregson has recently pledged his support to the new western separatist group, the Western Business and Taxpayers Association. Here is the announcement from the WBTA site:

Who is Erik Gregson? He is one of the hosts of the Calgary talk-radio show, Freedom Radio, together with Craig Chandler (a long-time Crutcher associate). Here is his biography:

Now that he's come out as a separatist, it'll be interesting to see what role he plays in the soon to be announced WBTA council.

Other posts in this series:

buckets · at 12/09/2008 01:56:00 pm

Regular readers of BCL found a startling headline this morning: New Western Separatist Organization Consists Of One Guy! He's referring, of course, to the new Western Business and Taxpayer's Association", which so far as anyone can see, has only one member, its executive director David Crutcher, a Calgary businessman active in provincial politics.

The rest of the council, as you can see from the screenshot below, is TBA.

It would be churlish of us not to pitch in with the helping hand by holding a contest to pick a council for them. There are, as you can see, eight positions vacant. You can nominate someone for each position, or some of them. Or you can make up your own new positions and pick who is best to fill it! Prizes for the best suggestions!

buckets · at 12/08/2008 07:44:00 pm

There were lots of political surprises last week. One thing, however, that was totally predictable was the creation of another separatist group, this time the Western Business and TaxPayers Association, whose website is charmingly called www.itstimetogo.ca.

Several points occur. First, one wonders whether there is any irony in their choice of .ca as their top-level domain? (If separation ever occurs they'll have to give up their website!)

Secondly, one notices that the website (screencap below) promises an operational website by Monday, Dec. 8 (today). Now, there are a few hours left before this promise goes unfulfilled. But it looks very much like Crutcher and his colleagues are going to miss their self-imposed deadline.

Update. It looks like they met (just!) their deadline: a new site is up this morning, here.

Bouquets of Gray

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Separatist on Parade, 11: Where did all the money go?

Friday, April 24, 2009

Separatists on parade revisited: parade forgotten?

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Separatists on parade, 10: another separatist in the Conservative Party

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Sheldon Johnston rumours

Saturday, December 20, 2008

More problems with WBTA Policy Chair's c.v.

Slump dumped

Thursday, December 18, 2008

WBTA VP grumps at Buckets' Slump dump pump

Slump dumped? Night of the long knives? Incompetence in the control room?

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Separatists on parade, 9: Harper once supported separatist Erik Gregson

Separatists on parade, 8: WBTA BC Chair comments on race war

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Separatists on parade, 7: WBTA BC Chair called for the execution of all Liberals

Monday, December 15, 2008

Separatists on parade, 6: Erik Gregson comes out of the closet

Separatists on parade, 5: Separatists bungle copy-and-paste

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Separatists on parade, 4: Erik Gregson to chair WBTA convention

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Separatists on parade, 3: western separatists in the CPC

separatists on parade, 2: WBTA claims to have ex-MPs

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

separatists on parade, 1: Erik Gregson

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

New contest: help the separatists pick a council!

Monday, December 08, 2008

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