The Liberal Party of Canada, which has been out of power for more than three years, opened its biennial convention in British Columbia this afternoon with remarks by a former Prime Minister who knows what it’s like to lead Canada’s longest-running political party through the electoral wilderness.
“This party will not be rebuilt from the top down,” the Hon. John Turner told a pre-convention gathering of party insiders at the newly opened Vancouver Convention Centre. “This party has to be rebuilt from the bottom up.”
Turner, who represented Vancouver-Quadra for a decade, led the national Liberal Party for more than six years but served as Prime Minister for less than three months.
“I believe riding-by-riding is how this party should be reconstructed, how this country should be run,” Turner counseled the Liberal faithful.
Turning to interim party leader Michael Ignatieff, he added, “Not to have a candidate, Mr. Leader, appointed from the top down but elected from the bottom up.”
The crowd of riding association presidents erupted in applause.
“I don’t want to see any leader-appointed candidates across the country,” Turner said.
“Take the whip off the Member of Parliament,” he added. With the exceptions of the Throne Speech and the budget, he said, “Let the member vote a free vote for every major bill.”
Turner’s comments were a shot across the bow in a three-day meeting that Ignatieff and party leaders are billing as a “renewal convention” that will “rebuild the grassroots,” but to which some local delegates arrived still grumbling about the party's historic top-down management style.
“They don’t really want to hear from us – except when they need money,” complained a credentialed delegate from a prairie town. He asked that his name not be used, and added that he would listen “with an open mind” to what the Ignatieff team has to say during the next three days.
Ignatieff responded to Turner’s comments during sunny press scrum convened on a terrace atop the new convention centre, with the North Shore Mountains as a scenic backdrop.
“I said to John that I didn’t agree with every single word he said,” Ignatieff said.
“I want open nominations in every riding… but I cannot abandon the prerogative of a leader to make those appointments that I deem necessary,” he continued.
“I want to make it clear, I want to use the power of appointment as rarely as I possibly can,” Ignatieff added. “I respect the grassroots of this party and I know I can’t rebuild the party unless it is from the bottom up."
Monte Paulsen reports for The Tyee.ca
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Fiat lux
3 years ago
It is the brutal fact that
It is the brutal fact that all parties tolerate members only as addresses for begging letters. The real decision making is done by invisible inner cores who control every word the leaders say.
Ed Deak.
Fiat lux
3 years ago
It is the brutal fact that
It is the brutal fact that all parties tolerate members only as addresses for begging letters. The real decision making is done by invisible inner cores who control every word the leaders say.
Ed Deak.
Fiat lux
3 years ago
The role of party members
It is the brutal fact that all parties tolerate members only as addresses for begging letters. The real decision making is done by invisible inner cores who control every word the leaders say.
Ed Deak.
Fiat lux
3 years ago
The role of party members
It is the brutal fact that all parties tolerate members only as addresses for begging letters. The real decision making is done by invisible inner cores who control every word the leaders say.
Ed Deak.
Fiat lux
3 years ago
The role of party members
It is the brutal fact that all parties tolerate members only as addresses for begging letters. The real decision making is done by invisible inner cores who control every word the leaders say.
Ed Deak.
Fiat lux
3 years ago
The role of party members
It is the brutal fact that all parties tolerate members only as addresses for begging letters. The real decision making is done by invisible inner cores who control every word the leaders say.
Ed Deak.
Fiat lux
3 years ago
My apologies! Sorry about
My apologies! Sorry about this repetition, but my posting didn't appear in the screen
Ed Deak.
cocean
3 years ago
What Ed Deak said
... multiple times.
Ed, it couldn't be said often enough, so don't sweat it. :-)
alive
3 years ago
better late than never
Easy to be so forthright once out of office for a number of years.
I have yet to see real democracy in any of the parties, federal or provincial.
The gender issue within the provincial NDP is a good example
Grumpy
3 years ago
The new Liberal Party......
.....the same old cronyism. Nothing ever changes in Canada, except for corruption.
Skywalker
3 years ago
So as Tommy Douglas once said...
..."why don't we elect mice/ (instead of cats)".
ReeferMadness
3 years ago
Iggy's waffling
Iggy's a waffle. Not only is he waffling here, in Victoria, he waffled when asked a question on proportional representation.
He doesn't want to give up the power at the top.
I'm not sure John Turner is one to talk, though.
Frank
3 years ago
What the hell??
Why is the "All Comments" feature turned off all the time by default now?
It makes it look like no one is commenting on the stories and even when you do comment, as Ed did, you don't see it.