Liberals are in for a few more years of Justin Trudeau creating his legacy, but his time is limited. It is unlikely that he has more than three years left in the prime minister’s office. It is during those three years that we have to rebuild the liberal party.
What Justin does not realize is if he had not treated the party as he did, he would have come out of the recent election a real winner. A stronger party could have given him the other 12 seats he needed for a majority. He never understood the party organization and its value. He never listened to it. When he cancelled party membership fees and changed the membership lists into a list of donors, he took away the pride people had in working for their party.
I remember years ago I was sitting chatting with the then president of the Ontario party. We had been setting up chairs for a riding meeting and he told me that he would much rather donate money than do mundane tasks such as setting up chairs. I agreed with him but his willingness to help set things up for the meeting earned him far more respect in the party than any donation.
Here is Justin thinking he can use the membership as his automatic teller machine when it could have done so much more.
A party with a strong say on party policy would never have let Trudeau make a hypocrite of himself by trying to complete the twinning of the Trans Mountain pipeline.
A party that was committed to choosing its own candidates in each electoral district would never have the recanting of candidates during the writ period. And when the party chooses, the party members get out and work for the win.
A party with strong provincial organizations across the country would have been ready and eager for the work that needed to be done.
Justin Trudeau has never understood that a successful political party is not run from the top down. Its strengths are in each electoral district.
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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry
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