The CBC reports that poor ole’ Doug McCallum has been snookered out of federal politics:

Former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum says he’s finished with politics after failing in his bid to replace Gurmant Grewal as the Conservative candidate in the riding of Newton-North Delta.

McCallum says he was not given proper notice of the nomination deadline, and was surprised to get a call on Friday morning telling him he had just two hours to file his papers. He wasn’t able to file in time.

He says he had talked with riding president Jim Holt earlier in the week, and that there was no mention about when nominations would close.

“I never did get the support of the riding association or the president. And so they set up a structure to get the nomination papers in. Unrealistically, I was given two hours to get my nomination papers in and filled out, and these are 35 pages long.”

Let’s consider how much it must suck to be Dougie right now:

1. He lost his Mayoral seat by a resounding 10,000 votes.
2. He then made the pretense of returning to his business interests only to turn around and make a play for a federal seat.
3. He then got steamrollered by a simple powerplay that revealed how much contempt for his ability was shared by Tory party members in his riding.
4. He know must return to his business interests once again after having sullied his nine years in municipal politics by politically whoring himself in such a brief episode.

I suppose the lesson here for politicians is that you are only as memorable as your final machination on the public stage—so be careful with your flip flopping and power grabs or you may go down in the books merely as an inept political mercenary.

I hope disinterested voters can now understand that following politics can be every bit as sadastic and enjoyable an experience as watching David Caruso fail in his attempt to jump to a film career.