The Anointed One, Mark Strahl, was missing in action at the first All Candidates Meeting in Hope on Tuesday night.

The riding of Chilliwack — Fraser Canyon is the Strahl family’s personal fiefdom, or so it appears to more and more residents of this riding.   The arrogance with which the younger Strahl is running his campaign is rubbing a lot of former Conservative supporters the wrong way.

It started off with his inside track to the party nomination for the riding, well in advance of any possible contenders.  Strahl naturally claims he had no advance warning of his father’s resignation, but unless your IQ is lower than 70, that claim falls on deaf ears.

If it were true, then Strahl could not possibly have had campaign materials ready the day the election was called.  It simply takes longer than a week to get these materials printed.

But be that as it may, Mark Strahl has the nomination, no matter how underhandedly he managed to get it.

I personally have been so disgusted with the Strahl Family Coronation that I’ve vowed NOT to vote Conservative in this election.  I’ve even toyed with the idea of planting a Liberal lawn sign in my front yard… the only thing that’s stopped me so far is I simply can’t stomach the idea of doing anything that promotes that moron Ignatieff.

So maybe it will be an NDP lawn sign….

But back to the point of this rant… Mark Strahl’s no-show at the first All Candidates Meeting for the riding.

The Liberal and NDP candidates are both loving every minute of Strahl’s antics, both within the party and in the riding.  New Democratic candidate Gwen O’Mally even sent out a press release on the issue that pretty much sums up the feeling of even the Party Faithful in the riding:

“Since the start of the campaign Strahl has been accused of relying on his father’s image instead of campaigning.  It seems Mark Strahl believes his name alone is sufficient to win.  He skipped an interview with Global TV at the outset of the campaign and Tuesday he skipped out on the Town of Hope.”

Liberal Candidate promised that if she was elected to represent the riding of Chilliwack — Fraser Canyon that she would “be here for you.”

So far, that’s more than can be said for Mark Strahl.

Despite being given three weeks notice about the All Candidates Meeting, Strahl couldn’t be bothered to let organizers know he’d be a no-show until 4pm the day of the event.

That’s class.

Long live The Anointed One.