The Liberal rebuilding continues apace,
with visits from party “heavyweights” to Victoria and a major telephone town
hall that took place last night. The message, of course, is that the party needs
to change – especially when it comes to ending the turf wars between internal
cliques – and it needs to broaden the membership. Four priorities identified
at the town hall that members were asked to choose from included 1) a leaner
organization, 2) letting anyone vote for leader, such as using a primary system,
3) better fundraising, and 4) better communication with riding associations. The
in-call poll answered with better communication (which sounds about right).
During the French-language call, Bob Rae also hinted that the party could be
pursuing a court challenge to the appointment of the auditor general (caution:
possible paywall).
While the omnibus crime bill continues to
wend its way through Parliament at an accelerated pace, Harper insists that the
provinces have a “constitutional responsibility” to enforce it, even though it
could bankrupt them. But for every time Harper and his MPs say that we need the
omnibus crime bill to keep violent offenders and sexual predators off the
streets, remember that most of the offenders that will be going to provincial
jails will be for things like pot possession or the overly broad definition of “trafficking”
and will have little to do with actual violent offenders.
As we approach Remembrance Day, there is
growing resentment from Afghanistan veterans over the way the government is
treating them, with some saying they are treated as second-class veterans.
The government, of course, insists they’re doing everything fantastically well,
and the minister has assured us in question period that no government has ever
done more for veterans than theirs. Meanwhile, there’s been another case of a
veteran’s records being subjected to a gross violation of privacy.
The
Canadian Press talks to NDP leadership candidate
Romeo Saganash about his life and the challenges he’s faced, starting out with
being shipped off to a residential school as a child.
Also in NDP leadership news, Niki Ashton
seems poised to announce a leadership bid later today.
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