No to Liberal Primaries

There is a proposition that we Liberals instate a primary system for electing our next leader. This was clearly iterated in the Board's document, "A Roadmap to Renewal." It suggests having a new category of people called "supporters" who would not be members, but would still have the right to vote in leadership contests. 

This is a bold, new proposal, especially in Canada. However, I do not think it would be a good idea to have a new category of "supporters." Instead, we have to work to get people engaged in Liberal activities, interested in our cause and when time comes to vote, they should be able to become a member easily and vote right away. No more of that 40 day crap. Membership fees should also go down from ten dollars to basically zero. Even though there is a cost to the Liberal Party for each member that signs up, it will be through engagement of our new and old members that successful fundraising will come.

To sum up, it is not through granting people the same rights as members that we will gain the support of more people. It is through engaging them by having a continuous policy-creating process and continuous forums that we will gain more members and thereby, gain more money.

The federal Liberal convention, which arrives in Ottawa on Jan. 13, will be a seminal event. Does it matter if the party survives? Few would say so with much passion, but I think it does matter. Failing that, we’ll be left with ideologues of the left and right. Liberals, by contrast, have few principles beyond survival and power, which at least makes for a keen attention to the public good.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.