Further to my post below it seems that the reason that the Liberals are so worried about the implications of the FAA on delegate fees is due to the fact that they are not recruiting new members. Greg Bester asked last night why this would be a problem as the Liberals could make sure that those who donate the $1000 maximum are not delegates. If Joel-Denis Bellavance was correct on Mike Duffy Live this evening the Liberals have recruited only 5000 new members. This makes that solution difficult.
So it is as I mentioned last evening, the Liberal "grass roots" is not broad-based and as no limits goes to $5,000 and the finally to $1,000 with no corporate or union donations the Liberals are being starved. And if 11 leadership candidates can't do better than 5000 new members, or 1.5 per candidate per riding they are in a world of hurt.
Comments (5)
This is very interesting.
Posted by Jack | June 19, 2006 7:48 PM
Posted on June 19, 2006 19:48
Most leaderaship campaigns hold completed forms and money until the day before membership cut off to avoid tipping their hats to any of their competitors.
This journalist doesn’t understand internal party mechanism.
Posted by KO | June 19, 2006 9:20 PM
Posted on June 19, 2006 21:20
KO’s comments are correct.
However, the LPC opened up the membership rules this time so that “walk up” members could sign themselves up. These 5000 would largely be these type of members (like Bob Rae!) 5000 is still a horrendous number. Sure there could be another 30,000 filled out membership forms sitting in campaign offices. It’s still very bad news for the LPC.
Posted by PlaidShirt | June 19, 2006 11:20 PM
Posted on June 19, 2006 23:20
“Those tracking federal Liberal leadership sign-ups in Lotusland may be interested to know the party’s British Columbia headquarters has already gone through 30,000 membership forms. An initial run of 10,000 was printed prior to April. And a second run of 20,000 ran out last week. As our astute readers will know, those forms can purchased for $1 apiece. But riding presidents, their membership chairs and MPs are entitled to a pool of 100 free forms, which are replenished on a no-cost basis as they are filled-out.” -publiceyeonline.com
I think someone like Kirygiannis could sell 5000 memberships on his own… even if they were to 6 year olds. That number is whack.
Posted by Dan McKenzie | June 20, 2006 1:17 AM
Posted on June 20, 2006 01:17
Do the children of Apotex, Bell Globemedia and Bombardier executives count among the 5,000 number, or are they extra?
Posted by Toronto Tory | June 20, 2006 9:58 AM
Posted on June 20, 2006 09:58