The Globe has a piece this morning that confirms the news I wrote about earlier this week around changes to how the Liberals will be handing MP nominations, adding commentary from Senator David Smith and whip Rodger Cuzner. The article notes "the number of Liberal-held ridings with 400 or more members can be measured in the dozens" which is sad. So, hopefully these new rules will help, although I still they're too low, and I'd prefer a more open nomination system (no protection for incumbents).
The article also makes a brief mention of fundraising though, and I found this interesting:
Mr. Ignatieff has overhauled the party's central office since becoming leader, bringing in new fundraising specialists. Party members are also becoming increasingly bullish about the Liberals' fundraising prospects under Mr. Ignatieff. Last Friday, the party raked in $80,000 from a leader's dinner in Edmonton.A Liberal fundraising dinner in Alberta raising $80,000, AND in this era of a low donation cap? That's pretty dammed good. Must have been a decent crowd. Hopefully a sign of some needed momentum building in the West, and accross Canada. Recommend this Post on Progressive Bloggers
2 comments:
I wonder how this will affect the quality of the candidates. If the rules are enforced, it will likely be a popularity contest and quality candidates will be overlooked.
One only has to look a municipal politics to see how this works where special interest "shape" the direction of elected officials mostly via their donations.
There is sweet irony that Iggy got his job from the backroom power brokers while candidates....
To be clear this is only about incumbent MPs and having their nominations protected, not new candidates.
Being elected an MP is in essence a popularity contest. If you can't sign-up 400 members without breaking a sweat, you probably shouldn't be an MP in the first place. And the only special interests we're talking about here is Liberal Party members.
This is about giving a little more power to riding members, and away from those backroom power brokers you dislike, so what's your issue?
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