Friday, November 07, 2008

You Have Debt? Then Maybe You Can't Run!


This could get nasty.

There must be a more diplomatic way of reaching out to some of the fringe (and not so fringe) candidates than legislating them out of contention for having debt from the last campaign. Good to see the Liberals are moving away from the old era of infighting. Way to go boys. Lets find something more contentious to launch the weekend talks with and turn this into a real love-in.

We are all about building a stronger party, fewer candidates, a shorter campaign, but we did not see this coming. There has to be a better way.




"...JOAN BRYDEN
The Canadian Press
November 7, 2008 at 9:22 PM EST
OTTAWA — The Quebec wing of the federal Liberal party is proposing leadership rules that would prohibit prominent MPs from joining the race to succeed Stéphane Dion.

Quebec officials are recommending that anyone with outstanding debt from the 2006 leadership race be disqualified — a rule that would hit Gerard Kennedy and Martha Hall Findlay, who each owe just under $200,000 from their unsuccessful bids.

“No candidate is allowed to run in this leadership race if the said candidate shows any outstanding debt from the 2006 leadership race,” says the Quebec wing in a submission to the Liberal party national executive.

The submission, obtained Friday by The Canadian Press, will be considered by the national executive as it meets this weekend to set the place, time and rules for the leadership convention."

6 comments:

MississaugaPeter said...

2003 revisited...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Liberal_leadership_convention

"Paul Martin spent the entire race as the unquestionable front runner, as his supporters had secured a lock on the party executives of the federal and most provincial sections of the party. They had made rules such as those regarding the sale of party memberships so onerous as to give Martin an unsurmountable advantage. Because of this, many potential candidates did not enter the race or dropped out"

"Martin easily captured the leadership with 93.8% of the delegates, however the party would be plagued by significant infighting afterwards"

Anonymous said...

So in the event that some idiot pulled the plug on this parliament by toppling the government and sent us all back to the polls, would the logic behind the Quebec wing's motion bar the Liberal party from running candidates? The party is in debt right now after all.

I'm kidding of course, but it does have stench of trying to limit the playing field to favour particular candidates.

Anonymous said...

We understand why he would do it. We don't like it, but we understand it.

Underlying this move is a feeling that the pure "democratic" process that the Liberals were so proud to parade across Canada in 2006 just plain did not work. Too many candidates, too long a process, too much money spent and where did it get the party? It put the Liberal further back, divided and in disarray.

So one among the pack is starting to organize better; starting to gain support for a more Machiavellian style campaign.

Some might believe that the party needs to be saved from itself, and needs to present a stronger leadership message to the public in order to make up for the last process and the last leader.

Anonymous said...

Let them run but they should have to pay off their old debt before raising money for this race, and their should be a non-refundable entry fee of at least 100,000. Let them run but they have to have the money to do it.

Anonymous said...

...ya and don't expect the party to pay off what you owe

Anonymous said...

The National Executive should set a signifcantly lower spending limit in view of the constraints of the Elections Financing Act. It was was too high last time, which resulted in all of the candidates having difficulty raising enough money and having to rely on debt. I disagree that any candidate should be barred because they are carrying some debt from lat time. This is a thinly veiled attempt to prevent Gerard Kennedy from running. Mr. Ignatieff needs to tell his more ardent supporters back-off. Nobody will win if we play these games. Let the best man or woman win on the basis of their ideas and ability to inspire us, not based on a technicality.