Liberal Leadership

[sensorglitch]

OTTAWA - Liberal Party President Doug Ferguson today announced that the National Executive has chosen Vancouver as the site of the next Liberal Leadership Convention. The Convention will be held at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre from April 30, 2009 to May 3, 2009

Comments

[mijopo]

Firstly, I don't like delegated conventions because they don't provide enough opportunity for the average voter to become engaged in the process of choosing the leader.

True, but almost every decision that ever gets made in politics and business provides no opportunity for the average voter to become engaged in the process. Why do you think that average voters should have an opportunity to become engaged in this process?

(To my mind, democracy is based on the fundamental principle that people have a right to choose who will govern them. I can endorse that principle wholeheartedly while simultaneously denying that it is always/usually (or even ever) the way to arrive at the best decision.)

[suitablyemoname]

Did you really just ask why one might think voters should be engaged in the democratic process?

[mijopo]

By definition they must be involved in the democratic process. But there are lots and lots of events that make up "the democratic process". Clearly the voters can't and shouldn't be directly involved in every single one of them. (If I decide to start a new party, that's part of the democratic process, should I consult the voters before doing so? If I create a party platform, that's part of the democratic process, need I consult the voters in doing so?) I guess it's not clear to me that they should be involved in this one or at least why parties should feel obligated to involve them. There's a big difference between selecting a leader for the country and selecting a leader for a party that will try to convince the country to let it lead.

[warrioreowyn]

Why do you think that average voters should have an opportunity to become engaged in this process?

The US system allows voters to choose the party nominee for chief executive. Forces the party to be a little more responsive to the concerns of regular people.

[mijopo]

The U.S. system might provide that illusion and yet what the two parties end up presenting to voters as their range of choices is two people with policy options that barely deviate from each other and an endless campaign composed of nothing but sound bites. And along the way, they spend more money than the GDP of several small countries.