I’ve got a novel idea. Let’s choose the next liberal party leader for Ontario with an honest election. It might even be precedent setting. What I would suggest is an election where every paid-up liberal party supporter has a vote and that the process is not just a fund-raiser for the party.
To get the process underway, the party should cut off membership as of the date of the regulations being announced. Of course, they should let people who could prove they previously held a membership to renew. It just does not make sense to let the person who can sell the most memberships decide who the next leader should be. Quite frankly, the best sales pitch on membership is not what the party is looking for.
It is not as though you can cut much time off the leadership campaign. You need time for people to consider running, build a team and do their planning.
Once the candidates have declared, the party needs to run a series of candidate meetings in groups of electoral districts around the province. Your audiences are going to be looking for the candidates’ presentation on the platform, the appeal of the person and the appeal of their ideas.
The party should test these debates on the road and either pass the hat or run a 50-50 draw to cover expenses. It is also essential that rural issues be discussed and rural appeal of the candidates be tested. When the debates get to the cities, the party can charge a reasonable admission to cover costs.
The key at this stage is to build media coverage. The idea will be to do a thorough job in social media and gain recognition for what liberalism is and what it can mean for people across the province.
The voting process itself can be done on computer. By splitting the list alphabetically over a number of computers with a variety of firewalls, you can make any effort to steal the election a waste of time. By running the election over a few days, there will be time for multiple ballots. We should make every vote count and give the party a leader who can bring the liberal party back to giving good leadership for Ontario.
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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
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