Our contingent of bloggers had a wide-ranging briefing this
morning in with Liberal Party of Canada national director Jeremy Broadhurst –
you may know him from the popular new Twitter meme, #SelfiesWithBroadhurst.
Lets start with a few stats. About eight or nine bloggers
have been accredited to the 2014 biennial – its unknown how many are
Conservative spies. Some six Senators registered, so watch out for them, NDP
spies. There were 2500 delegates pre-registered when online registration was
closed, and more will register on site. As off last night, over 2000 were on
site. For last night only, local Liberals were invited to join for the Lawrence
Summers/Chrystia Freeland interview, and Justin Trudeau’s opening speech.
Broadhurst expects many of them will purchase a delegate or observer pass and
stick around.
“All of them were signing contact cards to get in,” said
Broradhurst “We’ve got to get into the mindset in this party that it’s great to
have an event and get the message out to a good crowd, but you’re only doing ¼ of
your job unless you get their information and engage with them in a two-way
relationship after the event.”
Speaking of spies, the NDP has sent staffers Karl Belanger
and Anne McGrath and MP Alexandre Boulerice. From the Conservatives, Pierre
Poilievre, Lisa Raitt and a staffer from their party office. The Greens have
one person, and the BQ didn’t take an observer pass.
One question going in was how the party would handle
Senators in the party constitution, following Trudeau’s decision to remove
Senators from the parliamentary caucus and exclude them from party
organizational roles. Logistically a constitutional amendment can’t be
considered at this biennial, but Broadhurst said the national board has decided
to put a “sense of the convention” resolution to the delegates.
It will have
three elements – that the convention supports the call of the leader, that it
calls on the board to prepare necessary amendments for the next biennial, and
that in the interim the constitution be interpreted as best as possible to
reflect the new parliamentary reality.
“The constitution says the highest authority of the party is
Liberals gathered at convention, and that this is the group with the greatest
weight in the interpretation of the constitution. So it was decided this would
have weight; it’s not a meaningless thing,” said Broadhurst.
Nominations for the next election are getting underway. A
meeting has been called for Outremont, for example, as well as several others in
Quebec and British Columbia. It’s the decision of the provincial co-chairs to
call a nomination, and Broadhurst said a number of factors are considered: are there
approved contestants, has there been a candidate search at the riding level, is
redistribution complete, and is the riding healthy and strong
Nominations will happen effectively in three tranches, with
about 1/3 going this spring, 1/3 in the fall and 1/3 next spring. While held
ridings are more likely to go in the first tranche, it will not be limited to
held ridings.
“Obviously held ridings are more likely to have a candidate
ready to go, and I know a lot of MPs are working to get their forms in and go
through the green light process to go in the spring,” said Broadhurst.
While media access was greatly restricted at the recent
Conservative convention, Broadhurst said all but a small handful of sessions
will be open to the press at the Liberal biennial this weekend
“We do this stuff out in the open,” said Broadhurst. “We’re
going to have debates on policy at this convention, whether it’s the right
thing to do or not on any resolution, and that’s good. If we came in with 160
resolutions and 160 resolutions passed, what the hell’s the point of that?”
And what they’ll hear across many of the sessions are
discussions focused around a core theme of the economy.
“We’ll talk about a lot of important resolutions this
weekend, and not to diminish any of them at all, but the next election will be
fought on economic grounds. So let’s have a robust discussion about it,” said
Broadhurst. “So that’s why we wanted to start with a discussion on the economy
with Summers and Freeland, and we’ll come back to that theme throughout the
weekend.”
As for the popular #selfieswithbroadhurst meme that has
popped up on Twitter that got a bump Thursday when Trudeau joined in for a pic,
Broadhurst was bashful
“I’m trying to limit the selfies,” said Broadhurst. “It’s fun
though. I love my job, I love what I do, and it’s fun to be able to engage with
members at an event like this.”
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| #selfieswithbroadhurst blogger edition |
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