1 Anxious Liberal

1. The Martin Campaign’s decision to exclude, as much as possible, new party members in 2003.  It worked great for their campaign; it was a long-term mistake for the party.  It prevented new members from entering who then help shape party renewal at policy conventions.

2. The Martin Campaign’s attempts to eliminate all potential leadership opponents.  Liberal MPs were actually told that only MPs in ridings that elected 100% Martin delegates would be considered for any appointments.  Preventing new members prevented party renewal; pushing out opponents prevented the grooming of potential candidates to replace Paul Martin.  And that’s exactly what happened in the next leadership race – there were no candidates that large sections of the party could really, really warm up to.

3. The Purge that took place after Martin won.  To be clear, all new leaders do this.  Trudeau did it, Turner did it and Chretien did it too.  But former leaders did it where it was necessary; where someone could be an asset and would clearly be loyal they were kept.  But the Martin Camp got giddy with their purge and pushed out all sorts of people who would clearly be loyal to Martin and could win ridings for the Liberals.  Those ridings are no longer Liberal.  I think a decade of being the runt of the litter made these people explode once it was their turn to run the party.  It was sheer madness.

4. The Gomery Inquiry!  Absolutely nothing productive or useful resulted from that inquiry.  Nothing.  All it did was taint the Liberal Party.

5. Disloyalty to Dion.  All leaders face disloyalty and how they handle it demonstrates their leadership abilities.  But the disloyalty to Dion was of a particular kind that was ruinous to the Liberal Party.  You see, those who were disloyal to Dion in most cases felt justified because Dion was a mistake.  These people did everything they could to undermine Dion so that the mistake could then be fixed.  And the reason they thought it was a mistake was because the establishment of the Party never supported Dion in his successful leadership bid.  It was the grassroots who put Dion into power and it was the grassroots, in the opinion of our precious establishment, that made the mistake.  All their disloyalty was doing was trying to fix the mistake.

6.  Ignatieff, but enough said on that.

Marc Garneau is the wrong guy to be interim leader.

I’m in favour of merger discussions.  The only thing is Rae wants to merge with the wrong party.  Liberals should merge with the Green Party … or do a hostile take over of all of their reasonable environmental policies.  Add to that being firmly progressive on social issues, but not radical, and moderate on economic issues, with policies ranging from centre-left to centre-right, and you have the start of rebuilding the Liberal Party and brand.  Heck, if there is an actual merger you can call the new party the Green Liberal Party of Canada for all I care.  I do not, however, agree with merging with the NDP.

The Ignatieff camp did more damage to the Liberal Party than many realize.  When Dion was leader there were deliberate efforts to undermine Liberal support in several by-elections, with the hope being it would undermine Dion’s leadership.  Sure, there were all sorts of other ways that these people undermined Dion, but these particular actions have had a long running impact.  Outremont was one of those by-elections.  And Dion’s hand picked candidate was defeated by the NDP’s Thomas Mulcair.

Now, some will argue that the Liberals would have lost that by-election even if everyone in the Ignatieff camp had been supportive.  Maybe.  But there were some who cheered that we lost that riding.  And that riding was the beach head that helped the orange wave sweep through the province this election and reduce the Liberals to third party status – and perhaps secured the replacement of the Liberals by the NDP as the dominant progressive voice in Canada.

I’m glad Ignatieff is gone.

I’m not sure whether I agree with the rules laid out by the National Executive for the leadership race (and de facto for the interim leader).  However, one thing that is obvious is that they are trying to make things as difficult as possible for Bob Rae.  The rule truth about Igantieff’s appointment to the top job last time was that the elites of the party establishment had already decided that among the three candidates Ignatieff was the obvious choice so why waste time with an actual race.  And besides, maybe the grassroots will make a ‘mistake’ … again.  This time they are less obvious about it, but they still want to make sure Bob Rae doesn’t win.  Who cares what the grassroots thinks about any of this.  Right?  I’m sick of this crap from the Liberals.  That’s why I quit.

I like this, I REALLY like this:

I joined the party because of renewal, here we sit five years later, still talking. But, that’s the past, we needed to get decimated before everyone understood. Torn down, there’s nothing left to shelter reality, I’m convinced now we can rebuild this, just listen to the right voices, still old agendas around.

What I don’t like, however, is the Liberal elites deciding whether there should be a new leader now or later.  Who are they to decide?  They have learned nothing!  They gave us a leader without our say before, and now they do this?  Consult with the membership and ask us what we think.  Afterall, it is the GRASSROOTS who shall decide!

Rise up, grassroots.  Rise up!

So apparently Wayne Easter is floating the idea of becoming leader of the Liberal Party.  He doesn’t speak french but apparently that can be mitigated by appointing Denis Coderre as Deputy Leader.  Perhaps not being able to speak french should disqualify Easter from becoming leader, we’ll see about that.  But wanting to appoint Denis Coderre as Deputy Leader definitely should disqualify him!

Grassroots Liberals are now being urged to assign no blame to the recent devastating election results.  Very convenient.  I hope they don’t listen.  What is needed in the Liberal Party is a grassroots revolution.  And you don’t have a revolution without removing those currently holding power.

In December of 2008 we had a caucus gone rogue.  We also had a devious leadership camp that used this caucus to by-pass the will of the grassroots.  There was a mechanism in place to check this, though – the Executive.  The caucus believed we needed a permanent leader (their word, not mind) and so they wanted Ignatieff appointed.  And the Executive caved in.  They consulted the leadership of the Liberal Party to ensure they were in support but they never consulted with the membership, and there were mechanisms for them to this quickly and cheaply.  It was a dark day for the Liberal Party.  As upset as I was that the elites of our party would so blatantly trample upon the rights of the grassroots, I was also depressed that the grassroots just let it happen.

But this is reflective of what the Liberal Party is at its core.  It is an elitist party.  If it is to survive it must shed that and become a truly grassroots party.  Those who thought it was perfectly legitimate to anoint the next leader of the Liberal Party are indeed to be blamed … and removed.

On October 15, 2009 I wrote:

“Either the Liberal Party will reform itself into a grassroots party or it will cease to exist as a potent, political force in Canada.”

There’s nothing I wish for more for the Liberal Party then for it to have a grassroots revolution.  It is the only way to reform the party.  Do it!  You have to.  If you do not then the Liberal Party will cease to exist as a potent, political force in Canada.  It’s already half way down that path.  There is blame to be assigned and the grassroots needs to take back the power that rightfully belongs to them.  If some people were more honourable resignations would be forthcoming.  But accountability isn’t what it used to be.  So, grassroots, take the control!

I must say that I am happy to see some of the things being said and written by Liberals over the last few days.  Justin Trudeau has said that the work that needs to be done is at the ground level where the grassroots are and that we should NOT be expecting to return to power in four years.  Again, though, it isn’t just Justin that is raising these points.  Others are writing things that I have talked about for a long, long time now.  I doubt they got this from me, far from it.  However, cancelling the leadership race prevented Liberals from having these serious discussions.  This time around Liberals should take all the time necessary to get it right.  And, like I wrote yesterday, plan on an eight year rebuilding process.  You’re not going to go from 30 something seats to 155+.  But I am really excited by what I am seeing.  I am not excited enough to join, it’s far, far too late for that.  The Liberal Party needs to decentralize itself and become a grassroots, DEMOCRATIC party before I ever even consider joining again … and be THEE voice for progressives.  I don’t know yet that this is going to happen.

#1 Quit talking about four years of rebuilding.  You guys really need to give your head a shake.  When you say things like that its almost as if you’re saying, “Okay, Canadians, okay.  We’ll do four years in the wildness and THEN form government again.”  The rebuilding will take as long as it takes and then maybe you’ll earn government agains, but expect a minimum of eight years.  Yes, E-I-G-H-T years.  Don’t do some four year plan.  Plan on eight years of rebuilding.  Perhaps the stars and planets will align for the Liberals to return to power in four years.  But do not plan on that, plan on eight years.

#2 Have competitive riding nominations.  This is the most important step of any rebuilding effort.  If you do nothing else do this.  Sitting MPs should not get a pass.  Some of the dumbest things said and done have been by Liberal MPs who figure they were guaranteed to be re-elected anyways.  Do away with this!  Make them earn their nominations.  Some sitting MPs will lose their seats over the years with these new rules.  Good.  That’s called renewal!

#3 Make the Liberal Party the most grassroots party in the western hemisphere.  That’s right, don’t just make it grassroots.  Aim high and be the most grassroots party in the western hemisphere, if not the world.  Change the processes, mechanisms, EVERYTHING, with a view to making the Liberal Party a grassroots party.  Because right now it isn’t.  And if the Liberals really, really want to return to being a powerful force to be reckoned with this is the way to do it.

#4 Stop staying 60% of Canadians voted against the Conservatives, or at least stop taking solace in it.  The statement is mostly untrue, but for what truth there is in it it is equally true that 80% of Canadians voted against the Liberals – and that is far more telling a statement.

#5 Understand that the negative attack ads played a minor role in your historic defeat.  They most certainly played a role.  However, your inability to respond probably played more of a role than the attacks, and that is due to the Liberal Party’s inability to connect with its base in a way the motivates them to donate in large numbers.  That’s a problem … that’s a serious problem.  But also look at the polling numbers for this election.  Liberals were basically stuck at 29% for the first half of the campaign.  Then came the debates.  And following the debates the Liberals went into a slide.  What does that mean?  Well, Ignatieff had the opportunity to directly connect with Canadians during those debates and he failed.  Deep down grassroot Liberals relate to this and are not surprised, because most of them never connected with Ignatieff either.  However, the latte-elites of the Liberal party still can’t figure it out.  It must have been the attack ads because they were so sure that Ignatieff was almost as good as the second coming – and they can’t be wrong.  They literally, very literally, thought there would be Iggymania around the country.  These people need to give up control of the Liberal Party.  They should be welcome to stay, but they are completely out of touch with Canadians.  THEY are a far bigger problem than the attack ads ever were – root them out and remove them from their leadership positions.  Yes, the attack ads were a problem.  But the LIBERAL PARTY has been the biggest source of damage to the Liberal Party.  Once you figure that out, and stop blaming others, then and only then will you be able to rebuild.  And if after all this you still think the attack ads were the main problem then you just don’t get it.

I will say this.  Ignatieff himself was only a minor problem.  What’s more significant about Ignatieff is that he was a symptom of a much larger problem in the Liberal Party.  But I do feel the need to point out that Ignatieff had so many unfriggin’ believable opportunities put in front of him, and he completely missed all or nearly all of them.  It is truly astounding.  And frankly I think there are two reasons for that: 1) Ignatieff’s political instincts suck; and 2) Ignatieff simply does not believe in some of the core tenants of the Liberal Party; so when opportunities presented themselves that any true Liberal could have hit a home run with he decided to sit out of the issue.  Shame.  Shame on Ignatieff.  Shame on the elites who shoved him down our throats.  And shame on the grassroots for rolling over when it happened.  Good boy, grassroots, good boy.  Here’s hoping you grow a pair and get some pitbull instincts.

And one last thing, a word of warning.  If you think rebuilding is going to be easy, it won’t.  It will be excruciatingly difficult.  There’s probably a 50% chance that the Liberal Party will cease to exist as a viable political force in the country.  Liberals will have a reduced role and visibility in Parliament.  Liberals will have a smaller Parliamentary budget given its tiny caucus; more than likely Liberal MPs are going to have to give a small portion of their own budgets to try to make up for this.  And Harper will use every level at his disposal to further cripple the Liberal Party – he isn’t to nice to kick his opponent when they are down.  Say goodbye to the per vote political subsidy but also be prepared for much more.  Harper is going to be ruthlessly effective at making the Liberal Party’s ability to rebuild nigh on impossible.