Liberal Party of Canada postpones convention
I just received an email from Liberal Party President Alf Apps letting me know June’s convention has been postponed, without any further explanation.
Apps has this to say:
As we work together to win this election, the Liberal Party of Canada is postponing the 2011 Biennial Convention, which had been scheduled for June 17-18 in Ottawa. The good news is that a new date will be set shortly, as per our constitution, to take place within six months of the original date. Stay tuned for more updates.
That is ridiculous.
Apps has now provided the Conservatives, the NDP and the media with an opportunity to start the week off with claims that:
A) The Liberal Party is broke and can’t afford a convention; or
B) The Liberal Party believes that Ignatieff is going to lose, and the next convention will be a leadership convention.
Either way, dumb, dumb, dumb. Apps can’t be replaced soon enough.
The Liberals have been doing suprisingly okay with fundraising. I’d go with option B. Nothing wrong with voering all of the bases is there?
Michael Harkov
April 10, 2011 at 8:30 pm
Who cares what the depraved Reformatories think. Having the convention in October or November would be better.
kitt
April 10, 2011 at 8:32 pm
From that statement, I would assume it’s postponed because of the organization effort it would require can’t be left until mid-May or so.
cangar
April 10, 2011 at 8:34 pm
Or it means we recognize the possibility of a win now, and we won’t need the convention so soon. Also no time, we’ll be too busy running the country
Dan
April 10, 2011 at 8:37 pm
That works for me. It is much more realistic of a schedule if Ignatieff wins.
These are forward, positive actions. Don’t default to such negative assumptions. Use it to signal to Canadians that the Liberals are thinking — hey, we might actually win this thing! You can’t win an election if you don’t honestly expect to be the government when the dust clears.
Craig Chamberlain
April 10, 2011 at 9:06 pm
This is an absurd blog post.
Bob
April 10, 2011 at 8:45 pm
It isn’t dumb at all. Convention organization requires thousands of person hours during the three months leading up to the actual event. All the party’s labour has to be dedicated to the election campaign, which is much more important.
The notion of people sitting around twiddling their thumbs drafting policy resolutions, launching executive campaigns, and holding delegate selection meetings while there’s an election to be fought is ridiculous. This announcement is the correct one – and it probably should have been made the day the writ was dropped.
Also, the convention is generally a revenue generator for the party, and not an expense, so I can’t see how you could perceive this decision to somehow indicate that the party would be “broke”.
The party’s constitution specifically allows for (and requires) this kind of decision.
Mark
April 10, 2011 at 8:50 pm
Total BS. The Tories and the NDP are holding their convention in June as well.
Michael Harkov
April 10, 2011 at 10:54 pm
OK. How is any of this news? What about the day-in, day-out issues for me, my family, my community? That’s what matters here. Get out of your head and into mine!!!
Craig Chamberlain
April 11, 2011 at 1:22 am
Makes perfect sence to postpone. Delegate selection meetings would have take place during the writ period, diverting volunteer efforts.
Good move Alf.
Jj
April 10, 2011 at 8:52 pm
People read too much into things. The Liberal party is putting all of its efforts into the election campaign and it would be better for all concerned not to have to organize a convention so soon after the election.
Tony Deway
April 10, 2011 at 8:53 pm
Should have waited to May 3rd. There are lots of reasons to postpone – but it does leave the LPC open to un-needed criticism. Leave it to the CPC to take any cheapshot.
vancityjames
April 10, 2011 at 8:57 pm
And let a thousand folks book time off and purchase plane tickets, only to be told a month later that decision to postpone was made weeks beforehand? Nah. This is the best way to go.
Mark
April 10, 2011 at 9:09 pm
For a couple of weeks I’ve been wondering if the Opposition has been deliberately trying to throw the Conservatives under a Majority bus. Sort of forcing them into a position where they’d have no excuses, and plenty of opportunities to make enemies and alienate their own base. It’d require looking like you’re in it to win, but putting in a lacklustre performance, allowing for regularly paced mega-gaffes, and building a campaign on obscure arguments and setting up a self-destructive vote-split.
Anyway, I really believe this now.
Steve Tsuida
April 10, 2011 at 9:20 pm
I agree that this is the right decision. Blogging about it in this manner is destructive, your blog post is already being retweeted on Twitter.
Pamela Allard
April 10, 2011 at 9:53 pm
Did the NDP and Conservatives cancel their conventions for the exact same times? The NDP convention is scheduled for the same weekend as the Libs (but in Vancouver, not Ottawa) while the Conservative one is scheduled for one week prior (in Ottawa at the same location as the Libs)
Let’s hope they do cancel, otherwise the optics will be bad even if there are rational reasons for postponing the convention on our part.
Jennifer
April 10, 2011 at 9:58 pm
Most insiders were given the word in March that the convention had been postponed to December. Why he sent that email out today, of all days, is beyond me. And yes, he has to go.
James Curran
April 10, 2011 at 10:30 pm
Blogging about it in this manner is destructive, your blog post is already being retweeted on Twitter.
Exactly. Good job, why not just give them more ammunition??!?! Hell, why not just give them a whole depot????? Seriously, WTF??
http://stevejanke.com/archives/314593.php
Trent
April 10, 2011 at 11:13 pm
The ‘better to hide’ this stuff strategy is just dumb because when it does come out, and it always does, the damage gets multiplied because of that concealment. Ask Warren K about how the cover up is always worse than the crime.
It was the right thing to do Gritchick. Don’t let the party hacks/uberpartisans persuade you into covering things up and dissuade you from writing your opinions.
Ardvark
April 11, 2011 at 3:21 am
I think you’re overreacting. I’m not a Grit and I read that announcement as a no-brainer postponement due to the election.
AL
April 11, 2011 at 8:49 am
As an LPC(O) official, I’ve known since January that the convention would be delayed if there was an election this spring. You may have a point on timing, but it won’t come as a surprise to anybody who has asked about the issue before. I don’t see the media making a big deal of it.
Jason Cherniak
April 11, 2011 at 9:03 am
Sorry, I should have provided a bit of an explanation. To go ahead with the convention, Liberal ridings across the country would have had to hold Delegate Selection Meetings around the last week of April. The party office when then have to prepare lists and get ready. The resources involved when we should all be working on the election just made no sense.
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