It has always seemed a Canute-like task of denying the tides to defend the Liberal Party. There just seem to be too many of the elements aligned against us. A party leader can work at destroying his or her party on whims and the rest of us are left with the pieces on which to ponder.
Recently we had to go to some lengths to cancel a credit card to get the Liberal Party’s attention. Boy, they noticed that! When a party underling finally called and asked politely for a new credit card number, there was no point in venting on him.
It was an arrangement that we had with the Liberal Party for years. It was a small debit each month of money that was split equally between the national party office and the local Liberal electoral district association. It was not much but it included an automatic renewal of our membership each year in the Liberal Party.
But our dear leader put an end to that foolishness. He changed the constitution of the party. Not only can you be a Liberal Party member for free but the membership fee has been abolished. He did not think the party needed all those ten dollars. Nor will it get ours any longer.
It might be a bit picky of us to point out that he just might have been the first political party leader in Canadian history to openly interfere in the internal constitution of his or her party. This sort of mundane housekeeping is supposed to rise from the grass roots, not be dictated from on-high.
Our Prime Minister can run around without his shirt if he wants but he should realize he is no expert on political parties. You do not only need money from party members but you need their commitment. It is essential that supporters of any endeavour, political or otherwise, also have a sense of ownership. Why does he think people in the party make the commitment to canvass just one more block of homes, bring another family out to vote or to come to that party rally? It is because this is their party. Take it away from them at your peril.
People sometimes think this writer a little over-critical of Justin Trudeau. If we did not care, we might be much more critical. It is just that he must not be getting good advice or he is not listening to the good advice he does get. The only bad screw-up in his first year seems to be that poorly-written assisted suicide bill. We will just keep hoping for the best in the coming months.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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