Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Next Liberal biennial scheduled

I'm told that the Liberal Party executive has voted to schedule the next biennial convention for December 4th thru 7th in Vancouver. Go British Columbia!

Mark your calendars now, because its sure to be a wild one.

If we still haven't had a convention by December many people are going to be demanding to know why the hell not, loudly and clearly. At least one plus to no election by this point would be an actual grassroots opportunity to shape the policy platform.

If we have had an election, then we'll either have a leadership review vote which, even if we win a minority, could prove very interesting, OR if Dion has fallen on his sword after an election defeat this could end up being a leadership convention, depending on the election timing.

However, whatever the swirling leadership scenarios end up being I'm hoping they don't end up eclipsing the very important policy and democratic reform issues that need to be addressed. Chief among them in my view: returning power to the grassroots, and adopting a weighted one member, one vote system for leadership conventions.

Now is the time to begin having a discussion around party reform, and what form it should take, ahead of this convention. Focusing on leadership issues is short-term, if the Liberal Party is truly to get back on track we need to go deeper, and this convention could be the place to do it.

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1 comment:

James Curran said...

Well, my question appears to be answered - http://whatdoiknowgrit.blogspot.com/2008/02/liberals-turtle-againand-i-have-no-clue.html

They have to pick a date by the letter of the constitution by May 31 of this year. And, the biennial can't be later than 30 months from the previous convention.

Always nice to have a convention right before Christmas. ;-)