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March 8, 2004

Sheila Copps has been defeated by Tony Valeri in her fight to win back her Liberal party nomination in Hamilton, in what was allegedly a flawed and manipulated process.  Another nasty liberal battle in Mississauga saw Carolyn "I hate those American bastards" Parrish defeat former Chretien Cabinet member Steve Mahoney.  Both nominations seem to be representative of a large and organized purge of certain party members.  In addition, Belinda Stronach was also publicly accused (with undetermined validity) of buying votes within Quebec for the Conservative Party's leadership campaign.

The Canadian public is seemingly long past the point of trusting the political process, and these incidents only serve to further advance already existing suspicions.

From the point of view of someone who has been an active participant of partisan politics, the depth to which internal power struggles have become entrenched is utterly disheartening.  Party races to serve on a voluntary executive, become a candidate, or run for a party leadership have absolutely nothing to do with ideas, ideals or integrity anymore.

Instead, the person with the most money, resources and organizational strength is bound to come away as the winner every time.  There are very few undecideds that show up to these types of meetings, and thus no convincing is really possible.  In fact, on the campaign trail, membership signups are recruited specifically to one camp or another.  Therefore, once they show up, all that is needed to be done is the long and tried tactic of political herding, which treats the voters as mindless cattle waiting to be tagged, branded and sent on their way.

In Canada, it is a very dark time for those aspiring to run for public office in the future.   

Comments? jonathan@tdhstrategies.com