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Why the Liberal Party Took a Chance on the Supporter System
The boldest and most surprising outcome of this weekend’s Liberal Renewalfest in Ottawa was the party’s decision to open its doors to all Canadians by adopting a supporter system. As a result, any voter who supports the Liberal Party will be able to vote for its next leader – no need for a membership card […]
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Convention Recap
Despite the “blogger ban”, the interwebs are full of LPC Bienial reaction. For those of you thirsty for more first hand recounts, here’s what some of the Liberal delegates who were there thought about the weekend: Kyle Peterson Leanne Bourassa Policy Collaboration Far and Wide A BCer in Toronto Joseph Uranowski Rob Silver RidingByRiding Also […]
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The Road to Renewal
Well, that was fun. It’s hard not to come out of this weekend’s Liberal Renewalfest in Ottawa without feeling good about the future. Considering the collective punch to the gut the Liberal Party took on May 2nd, it was remarkable to see Liberals out at this convention in such high numbers and such high spirits. […]
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2012 Liberal Biennial in Pictures
The drive to Ottawa. Had there been an “annex the Turks & Caicos” policy, it would have passed overwhelmingly, simply on the prospect of a sun destination convention. Munir Sheikh – the Bono of former StatsCan heads – gave a 9 am talk on survey sampling methodology. The voting clickers predictably had some glitches – […]
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Guest Post: Why I’ll Be Voting Against Nearly Every Policy At the Convention
A few years ago, I was at an Liberal Party of Canada in Alberta AGM voting on policies to go forward to the Vancouver Biennial in 2009. We were debating a policy that called for a 25% reduction in greenhouse gases. A funny thing happened; someone stood up and declared that this was too high, […]
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Primary Debates (2)
Myself and Jeff Jedras follow up our online debate, with a video chat over beers on the primary resolution which will be up for vote at this weekend’s convention. After the video ended, the rest of the bar patrons joined in on the argument and it ended in a brawl.
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Meet Charles Ward
On Monday I voiced my support for Mike Crawley for LPC President, after profiling Crawley, Sheila Copps, Ron Hartling, and Alexandra Mendes over the past month. I mostly glossed over the fifth candidate, Charles Ward, since I really didn’t know much about him. Luckily, Charles gave me a call yesterday and remedied that problem, so […]
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The Presidential Election
For somewhat inexplicable reasons, the race for Liberal Party president has been generating more ink in recent weeks than the race for leader of the opposition. And if you’re going to this weekend’s convention in Ottawa, you’re probably getting 5 or 6 calls a day from candidates asking for your support. Given the importance of […]
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Preliminary Thoughts on the LPC Presidential Race
Elections for Liberal Party President have tended to be mundane affairs in recent years. In 2008, Alf Apps was the only candidate – either because the powers-that-be made it known he would win, or because everyone else was too lazy to run. In 2006, the presidency was overshadowed by the excitement of the leadership race. […]
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Primary Debates
In his Macleans.ca debut, my friend Jeff Jedras takes aim at the proposal Liberals will be voting on in January to move to a US-style primary system to choose the party’s next leader and nominate candidates. While I’ve already voiced my support for this system, Jeff raises three valid critiques which I want to take […]