Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Heard at Dinner: "Worse than the Martinites!"

John Napier Turner gave an aggressive and instructive speech out at the Liberal Leadersh...er, Policy Convention in Vancouver in May.

It was a scathing bit of reality that most in the room had to come to terms with but some were in too much shock at the moment. Some of us had already come to terms with it as long as 5 years ago or more. Heck even the current Liberal War Room guy use to write about the atrocities of the internals of the party.

But hey, that was sooooo two months ago. Back to business as usual. You know, the business of discouraging candidates and not allowing open nominations for EVERY riding(anyone hear of a riding named Halton?). You know, that sort of thing.

Sure, sure you say. He's a whinny bastard isn't he? Well NO. See, many of us real grassroots-type people have been whining about the same old, same old for over a decade or more. John Napier Turner knows that. He knows that and wasn't afraid to tell the world in an open media forum.

Here's the problem: the guy seated to his right wasn't paying attention. If he was paying attention, he would have maybe remembered the promise he made to 14 of us in a little Indian restaurant in downtown Hamilton, Ontario on a damp night in February of 2006. The promise that this sort of bullshit in the party would stop.

Worse than the Martinites? I'm not sure that would be a compliment.


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9 comments:

Jennifer Smith said...

Couldn't agree more. So what are we going to do about it? Because I'll bet there isn't a single riding president or party member who wouldn't support a constitutional amendment severely restricting if not eliminating the power of the leader to appoint candidates.

Or am I missing something?

James Curran said...

Well Jen, it all starts with us...as in true grassrooters. First you draft the amendment. Then you bring it to the LPCO AGM (Which is loooong overdue and is supposed to be this fall). Then you work your ass off to get 107 ridings to agree on it and get it passed. Then you get it to the next leadersh..er...policy convention. Then you get it passed there too, and voila, the leader still gets to veto the riding. Nice.

The Mound of Sound said...

James, my sincere thanks for this terrific post. The reason the LPC is deadlocked with the Harper Tories is a systemic failure at the party leadership level. These guys are acting like they're running a college frat house, not the Liberal Party of Canada.

Jennifer Smith said...

You left out "dig up every single instance where the party has overridden the riding in appointing a candidate and raise hell in the media until the party is embarrassed into changing the policy".

James Curran said...

Jen. Who has that much time on their hands? We'd be here for weeks trying to get that list together.

How about we start by electing an entire new executive at LPCO?

Jennifer Smith said...

I'm up for that. You know the players, so give me a list of who you'd like to see run who would shake things up. Of course I'd love to see your name at the top :)

James Curran said...

I am on that list!!! AND, I'm told I won't be winning the contest!

Jennifer Smith said...

We'll see about that...

James Curran said...

Well then, I'll be continuing my ONTARIO! Our to Recover! tour shortly.