by matttbastard
Must-read post from Liberal leadership candidate (and staunch coalition supporter) Bob Rae: Don’t Let Your Right to Vote be taken Away.
Go.
Related: CP report on Iggy’s attempts to grab the reins of power, a development that might possibly scuttle any chance of the Grits forming a coalition to oust the Harpercons.
Update: Another must-read via rgendron – John Laforet: Closed Door Caucus Decision? – An Affront to Democracy and the Grassroots
Go.
Update 2: From Laforet’s post, an excerpt of a mass email sent to Liberal Party members that outlines the consequences of Ignatieff’s plan:
Riding presidents would have zero votes and only
one third of ridings in Ontario will have even a Caucus member vote.This means:
No votes for the aboriginal community.
No votes for students.
No votes for Womens’ Clubs.
1 vote for francophones.
1 vote in the Guelph-Windsor corridor.
1 vote for Northern Ontario.
This is anti-democratic, and does not represent the many voices and values of our party!”
bastard.logic 
On the other hand:
“The party’s process for selecting a leader is prescribed by the constitution and, while we are interested in any suggestions the party may have for how to shorten that process, it is clear the constitution must be respected,” MacKinnon said in an interview.” – Link
I’m a stickler for rules. And so I’m rather torn on this one.
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I read that — is the same CP wire report I linked to in the first update. Look, Rae claims that his electronic ‘one member, one vote’ proposal is constitutional. And Steve MacKinnon, Ignatieff’s national campaign director, is, obviously, not a neutral party in the matter (neither is Rae, of course.) So I would take his sweeping declarations with a huge chunk of salt, Gene.
Regardless, I’m not a Liberal Party member, nor am I familiar with minutia re: the party’s constitution. Perhaps someone with more knowledge on the matter would be so kind as to enlighten us.
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Jason says Ignatieff’s camp is right. I read something to that effect (can’t remember where though) and I think Jason is right.
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So. The national executive (with input from Caucus) appoints Iggy as interim leader. While his nat’l campaign director gets all sanctimonious about teh r00lz, Iggy is reportedly trying to strong-arm caucus allies into demanding a caucus vote to have him immediately installed as leader (with no input from the party grass roots). Once again the Liberals fiddle into internecine warfare while Harper laughs and the nation burns.
BAU.
Fucking wankers.
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“For the Conservatives, the most damage in the past week seems to have come from the province of Quebec, where a plurality believe Mr. Harper should resign as leader of the party and a majority blame the Conservatives more than anyone else for the parliamentary crisis.” Dumb Harper was foolish enough to attack the coalition government blame on Quebcers and he is now continuing to pay the price for it. He Harper cannot win without the support of Quebec, east.. nor can the Liberals
http://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2008/12/06/the-laws-still-do-need-to-be-enforced-in-reality/
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