Why has Tory brass remained silent?

Managing Editor David Wylie Jan 17 Editorial – http://www.dailycourier.ca/

Eight directors on the local Conservative board have resigned since March, 2006. At least two of the eight say they have been forced out. And a ninth director fears he will be fired at the next meeting for speaking out against Okanagan-Shuswap MP Colin Mayes. Meanwhile, the board’s president is saying “no comment” and Mayes remains unreachable. A highly experienced and committed conservative volunteer says he hasn’t seen such schisms within the party since 1988, the last time the Tories lost the riding. With so much unresolved division here at home, can residents in Vernon be confident Mayes is at his best while doing business in Ottawa?

And why has he remained so silent? Vernon residents deserve assurances from their MP that he is doing his best to bring peace to the riding’s conservatives. Over the past year, the Vernon Daily Courier has reported sporadically about the internal wrangling going on inside the local board. For the most part it has seemed to be an “us against them” scenario, with those who backed Conservative Party hopeful Dean Skoreyko wrestling with those who support Mayes.

Then we heard about Ria Carpay’s resignation in December. Carpay, who was a longtime volunteer with the Conservative board, quit in frustration after being accused of bias against Mayes. At the time, we tried to reach Mayes about the resignation, but he refused to return our phone calls. In fairness to the MP, we decided to drop the story. Now Wayne McGrath, a dedicated conservative who has served both as riding president and as executive assistant to Mayes before being replaced by Terri Jones, says he’s afraid history may repeat itself, and the split within the local board may lose the Tories this riding in an anticipated election.

We’ve also discovered, as already mentioned, that eight board directors have left in less than a year. That seems like a higher than normal turnover. So what’s happening in our local riding?
Neither Mayes nor the board president will give us an answer, so we can only speculate. Perhaps Mayes is cleaning house, ridding the board of directors who speak out against him. Or maybe it’s just simple coincidence and life circumstances that eight board members have stepped down. We haven’t received any assurance, however, that it’s the latter.