Posts Tagged ‘Liberal Party of Canada’
Ruby WAS Running!
Recall my post “Is Ruby Running?” – my immediate response to viewing ‘www.yourvoices.ca’. I suggested that 90 000 members would be enough to take over the Liberal Party of Canada and 90 000 people each donating one dollar would also pay for the entrance into the leadership race? I also pointed out whomever bought www.yourvoices.ca did so four days before the economic update and therefore almost a week before the coalition idea came together and a spirited, democratic race fell apart.
Well, the Brampton Guardian reported today in their article “Leadership run not in the cards for local MP”
“Ignatieff has endorsed Dhalla’s Web site initiative, yourvoices.ca, developed during her contemplation of a run at the leadership. The site is a forum for grassroots Liberals to express concerns or ideas about issues and the party’s direction. It is also a vehicle for soliciting political donations. Dhalla had hoped to raise the $90,000 needed to enter a Liberal leadership campaign.
Any money raised through the site now, will go in to a fund to assist others who might aspire to mounting a leadership campaign someday, according to Dhalla.
“It (the money) would go in to the Liberal Party and we’re hoping to create a fund for the next generation,” she said.”
If it had not be so transparent I’d feel good about having been able to call it, but short of renting bill boards, it was painfully obvious what she was up to. What she possibly thought her qualifications are, are beyond me, but that will be a debate we won’t have to hear until next time.
1 Comment »Is Ruby Running?
I don’t like starting rumours, but after having seen ‘yourvoices.ca’ and getting an absolute ton of “Dr. Ruby Dhalla” google ads in my gmail account, I’m beginning to wonder. As you may recall during the lead up to the 2009 Leadership Race that wasn’t, Dhalla was sending out feelers and deciding whether it was a good idea or not to jump in. She ultimately didn’t, and the rest is history, or is it?
Consider this, the cut off to enter the race is not until some time in February or March 2009, it takes $90 000 and a prayer on paper to do it at this point. If one was able to seriously find 90 000 people who would each donate a buck, presumably many would donate 10 or 20, which would be damn close to the cost of a run. Further, if these 90 000 people who each donated a buck so their voices could be heard (this I will address later) also joined the Liberal Party before February 6th, they would join an existing membership of just under 70 000 and therefore be a majority, but also a majority who are interested in engaging the grassroots and therefore probably not thrilled by the events of last week.
I’m not saying this is a good idea, and if anyone were to organize under this kind of pretext, while I would recognize ingenuity, I’d have trouble supporting them because the self interest index would be off the chart. That being said, as a strategy, it isn’t such a bad plan. I mean if you can convince a grassroots movement to form, in effect take over the party, and have found a ton of donors to make it all possible in the process, you could spring out of the gate after all these members have joined and seek the Leadership with at least have some hope of making it happen.
Whomever owns www.yourvoices.ca registered it on November 23rd 2008, – four days before even the economic update happened and therefore the coalition idea had not even been born. They also put the privacy feature on when registering so it is unclear whose it is, but it is safe to say that this is not a formal Liberal Party thing as it does not carry the “authorized by” message, and Ignatieff’s folks wouldn’t make mistakes like that. Also – when asked on November 18th by the Brampton Guardian – she didn’t say no, she said “I am currently consulting with supporters and senior Liberals from coast to coast as to what the future holds. I will be making my decision public in the near future.”
The long and short of it is I’d like to go on record early suggesting that I see this as a pretext to either sneak up this time if yourvoices.ca is successful in finding 90 000 new liberals who will each donate and join the party before the cut off, and if it is not successful in the short term than I’m sure it is part of a “next time” campaign. The latter has more danger as so many Liberals are sick of the people who campaign for leader when we have one who has not announced any intentions to stand down. That being said, those who use that strategy (Turner, Chretien, Martin, Ignatieff) have won four of the last five leaderships. If this is the case, Ignatieff will need to stamp it out by allowing the concept, but making it a party thing, because we cannot afford another one of those.
The general idea of a www.yourvoices.ca concept makes sense, but the “pay to play” aspect is problematic. I am a grassroots Liberal with a lot of ideas, but some how pulling out my credit card (which I am sitting on and could quite easily) to make a donation to what could end up being a leadership campaign, and is not an official party process on engagement (therefore easier to ignore) just doesn’t seem like a big motivator for me.
I think the Liberal Party of Canada desperately needs to do some serious thinking about outreach, but it needs to be the National Executive, and the Leader heading up the process with some built in accountability. A Red Ribbon 2.0 may be in order, because the last one appears not to have worked, at least in the short term.
For those who think I might be a little nuts for my suggestion that this is a pretext to Dhalla throwing in, keep in mind the February or March deadline to file. The party has not suspended the convention, there will still be a convention and it will pick the leader. The membership cut off is on February 6th and the delegate election weekend is March 6-10th. The single largest challenge to beating a front runner is membership sales.
Read Ruby Dhalla’s letter posted on the main page after considering the facts above:
“Dear Friends,
Yourvoices.ca is about you. It’s about having your voice heard. It’s about making a difference.
Yourvoices.ca is a grassroots campaign to open the Liberal Party to new voices, to new visions, and a new future. This campaign is about building from the bottom up, about reaching into communities, about connecting with families, listening, and changing the way we do politics in our nation. With Yourvoices.ca you have the power to be apart of history for a cause that is greater than any one of us.
Yourvoices.ca has been created to hear your thoughts and suggestions of how we can better connect with Canadians, give them hope and inspire them to believe. As the Liberal Party goes through the journey of electing a new leader you have the opportunity to be apart of this change to make sure we get it right!
The goal is to have 90,000 new voices to help renew and rebuild The Liberal Party. If each of these voices contribute at least $1, Yourvoices.ca can raise $90,000, the amount that was needed to become a candidate. Yourvoices.ca is the voice of the people. Tell your friends, neighbours, colleagues and community members to join Yourvoices.ca. 90,000 people donating $1 each will raise the $90,000 we need to make history.
I am excited to be a part of this campaign which is about the grassroots, and look forward to reading your ideas and your voices. As we build a Canada in which every child, man and women, has the ability to believe, achieve and succeed.
Dr. Ruby Dhalla
Member of Parliament
Brampton-Springdale”
National Executive to Expand Definition of ‘Brass’
Good work grassroots! You made them budge. Now caucus and the national executive will not be making the decision completely alone and without consideration of the other 70 000 Liberal party members. But don’t get too excited, only riding presidents, defeated candidates, and commission club presidents will join the process.
I happen to be a riding president, but I still don’t think this is acceptable. Better, but not good enough.
Here are some problems as I see them:
1) Candidates for the Liberal Party Leadership should not be candidates for the Interim Leadership – Michael Ignatieff was wrong to attempt a power grab and force this latest brawl.
2) The Party annouced in a press release that this process has been created and will include consulting the ‘Council of Presidents’ – the problem? I am a member of that Council – we meet tonight at 8pm and I have yet to receive any communication to this effect. Are we expected to decide tonight or some other time before December 17th?
3) There has been no debate! – Bob Rae called for one public debate a week back in November and a single debate has yet to be had. The closest thing to a debate was that botched attempt in Mississauga where Ignatieff would not allow the media in. It’s important to remember at that point riding presidents were still considered part o the ‘family’ to Michael. That was before you needed to be a Senator or MP to be considered ‘family’ by him. This leaves us in a position where we’re calling the leadership based on media speculation and whatever backbiting and inside baseball we’re privy too… Does anyone else see a problem with this?
The selection of the interim leader will have a significant impact on who becomes the real leader. No matter what we need to have a convention to allow the party to at least ‘make believe’ the decision, so why not just have the race and allow a non candidate to lead the party in the interim. Afterall, that is kind of the idea.
Finally – a note to Liberal members. Please contact your riding president and defeated candidate. Tell them that you believe in democracy and do not support this strange interim = coronation process. Ask them to support the candidate that respects your constitutional right to elect delegates to select the leader.
If you need help finding the contact information of your MP, defeated candidate or riding president; please email me your riding name and I will do my best to help. My email is john.laforet@laforet.ca
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