Thursday, April 16, 2009

The Long and Winding Road

The Renewal Committee releases its report, and puts the emphasis on a 308 riding strategy.

I've already given my comments on this - in short, I think this is a step in the right direction. The real challenge is ensuring this doesn't get buried like, well, most other reports.

posted by calgarygrit at 1:49 p.m.

7 Comments:

  • Oh, hey, by the way, speaking of renewal, can you find out for us if Ignatieff's aide Warren Kinsella has had hairplugs installed on the top of his head ?

    It is unclear if it is just natural foliage above the brow or if he may have transplanted a significant number of strands taken from the back of his neck, back, and big toes.

    Thank you.

    By Anonymous Roxanne T., at 3:36 p.m.  

  • At the same time that the report comes out, the LPCA sends out a job advertisement for the field worker that the proposals call for.

    Good for them for coordinating.

    Interesting, though, that the job description of the field worker in the LPCA is going to be limited to fundraising until the position begins to pay for itself to do other things, too.

    I can imagine the lines forming at LPCA headquarters to sign up for that gig.

    By Blogger Gauntlet, at 4:42 p.m.  

  • The 308 riding strategy is really important for the simple fact that each vote carries a monetary value in Canada now. One of the reasons our revenues took such a big hit this time around was that our support dropped bigtime in longshot ridings. In fact, the Green party even beat us in many rural ridings... If we campaign to every riding in Canada, we will increase our revenue base from the extra votes we pick, and second, widening the ridings that we campaign to will ensure that we are poised to pick up new ridings whenever electoral prospects and regional party realignments occur. For example, as it stands right now, any Conservative collapse in rural BC will only help the NDP, not the Liberals. British Columbia Southern Interior is a good example of this phenomenon.

    By Blogger Spudster, at 8:22 p.m.  

  • The Report reads as a polemic for the National Executive to "do the right thing". [Put into actual practice substantive changes for what PTAs do and do not do, etc.]

    The authors point out the Constitutional powers are all there, the National Exec just has to 'make it all real'.

    Which they declined to do just a few weeks ago.

    Is this going to come up- formally, on the floor- in some manner at Convention?

    Or is the Report being released now in the run-up to Convention more as part of general pressure on the Exec?

    By Blogger Ken Summers, at 12:08 p.m.  

  • Ken, I'm not sure where you're getting your info from but the national exec passed a bylaw over a week ago implementing a lot of the recommendations for the PTA's.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:39 p.m.  

  • What I heard was passed a couple weeks ago was things that the LPC already has control of- and which the Report recommends the LPC should do a better job of because [paraphrasing] this is an obstacle/excuse for the PTAs not putting forth the plans for change that are called for in the Constitutional changes of 2006.

    The press release says "administrative changes have been made" and there is the ASSOCIATION of this with the broad changes called for in the Report... but unless you have specifics about what was involved that say otherwise, my impression was that these were relatively minor stuff.

    By Blogger Ken Summers, at 8:50 p.m.  

  • From today's Globe:

    "At Mr. Ignatieff's urging, the Liberal Party's national executive has agreed to take money it currently provides to provincial wings of the national party and redistribute it to ensure it is equally divided among Liberal associations in each of the country's 308 ridings. Officials did not disclose the amount to be 'reprofiled,' although one source said it could reach up to $5-million."

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090420.wliberals20art21382/BNStory/politics/home

    If this is true- and to the degree at least impled here- this would amount to the hollowing out of the financial and staffing powers of the PTA's.

    The Renewal Report make assurances that the PTAs should go on. But it is the form they will take, not their continued existence that is the issue.

    Since there is in the last few months been a lot of obfuscation, implication and ramapant overstatement over what is ACTUALLY happening or committed to happening 'on the ground', its hard to knwo exactly what this means.

    If it as stated in the story then that is for all intents and purposes the National Executive reversing itself and at least beginning to follow the demands ['recomendations'] of the Renewal Committee.

    Does anyone know the actual extent of these changes?

    By Blogger Ken Summers, at 9:39 a.m.  

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