Liberal Party of Canada Leadership Convention

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azulmagia

The liberal leadership race is nothing more nor less than the coronation of Justin Trudeau.

The only thing Trudeau has going for him is the Trudeau name and those poll numbers. And we all know how fickle the latter can be. Justin's untested and still kind of green. It's not like he spent a good decade writing for Cité Libre, after all. If Justin doesn't have the underlying substance, the Liberals will be third party for a long time to come.

I'm less worried and more excited. It has little to do with the Trudeau name and more to do with the fact that a strong piece of his platform was the decentralization of power from the Leader's office within the Liberal Party, giving power back to the EDAs, holding open nominations (even for incumbent ridings), and putting policy development more in the hands of party members.

It's a strange irony, that his views are more in line with that of John Turner than that of his father.

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And frankly the way the NDP is dealing with this is kind of stupid. They can't and shouldn't drop Mulcair, so they're thinking about dropping references from socialism from the party constitution. Making the party be just a second liberal party blurs its distinctiveness. You might as well defect to the real liberals while you're at it. And we all know what a big success New Labour was.

I kind of know how you feel here, in that I would hate to be without a political party in parliament that represents my views. However, what I can say to you is that you should stay with the NDP. Perhaps they can realize that they can take socialism out of their constitution, but they can't take it out of the party's spirit.

[azulmagia]

AnarchoPhiliac

azulmagia

The liberal leadership race is nothing more nor less than the coronation of Justin Trudeau.

The only thing Trudeau has going for him is the Trudeau name and those poll numbers. And we all know how fickle the latter can be. Justin's untested and still kind of green. It's not like he spent a good decade writing for Cité Libre, after all. If Justin doesn't have the underlying substance, the Liberals will be third party for a long time to come.

I'm less worried and more excited. It has little to do with the Trudeau name and more to do with the fact that a strong piece of his platform was the decentralization of power from the Leader's office within the Liberal Party, giving power back to the EDAs, holding open nominations (even for incumbent ridings), and putting policy development more in the hands of party members.

It's a strange irony, that his views are more in line with that of John Turner than that of his father.

Justin Trudeau has a platform? Who knew?

Again, we shall see if he has the substance. Then again, sometimes it takes time to develop substance. Layton wasn't just likeable and charismatic, he had substance, it just took a while before he found the right approach. Ed Broadbent was likeable (hell, he was more popular than Mulroney or Turner) and had substance, but never found a way to translate that into the desired results.

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Quote:

And frankly the way the NDP is dealing with this is kind of stupid. They can't and shouldn't drop Mulcair, so they're thinking about dropping references from socialism from the party constitution. Making the party be just a second liberal party blurs its distinctiveness. You might as well defect to the real liberals while you're at it. And we all know what a big success New Labour was.

I kind of know how you feel here, in that I would hate to be without a political party in parliament that represents my views. However, what I can say to you is that you should stay with the NDP. Perhaps they can realize that they can take socialism out of their constitution, but they can't take it out of the party's spirit.

I have no illusions about the party's "spirit". The presence or absence has nothing to do with how the party would govern in power. Absent a massive groundswell from the working people of a country, elected social democratic governments must work within the limits of the logic of capital, since there is no other counterweight to the power of the few than the power of the many. This may come as a shock to what people generally think, but in terms of ethical progress, hypocrisy is better than an honest avowal of any given vice.