PETA plans to protest Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Winnipeg on Saturday to encourage him to end federal subsidies of the commercial seal slaughter.
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Besides celebrating their massive victory, Trudeau is putting forward a sweeping proposal to overhaul the party’s constitution.
But while party brass may be loathe to challenge the government, Robbins predicted the resolution would get plenty of support from convention delegates, if they’re ever given the chance to vote on it.
Some Liberals are viewing the proposal as a way of concentrating power with the party leader.
“Among other things, they’re debating the merits of marriage equality”.
That vote will take place Saturday afternoon, just after Trudeau addresses the crowd, which leaves plenty of time for backroom arm-twisting for members who may have misgivings about the new structure.
He later personally moved the motion asking for support for the constitution. He says the new constitution will strengthen the voice of the grassroots.
“But it isn’t and it doesn’t”.
Under the proposal, anyone willing to register for free as a Liberal will in future be entitled to vote in leadership and nomination contests, attend conventions and take part in policy development. Or, at least, they must keep their party on top, in which case all will be forgiven anyway.
That manifested itself Friday in an attempt to change the rules to allow a secret ballot vote on the proposed constitution, where delegates wouldn’t feel “pressured one way or the other”, as one Liberal put it. That idea was overwhelmingly rejected. “And I want you to know that I admire you and thank you for doing it”, he said.
Trudeau was not all sweetness and light when it came to the Conservatives, however.
He says the proposed new constitution would bring the grassroots closer to the party leadership. “The era of factional battles, and of hyphenated Liberals, of regional chieftains and behind the scenes power brokers”.
Proponents contend that flexibility is needed to enable the leader and party executive to act more nimbly, rather than having to navigate through the cumbersome, detailed requirements now spelled out in the 18 different constitutions that govern the party, its provincial wings and commissions.
“It empowers a bureaucracy that creates conflict and distance between us”. No party’s leader can have literally touched more of his supporters. One of the changes would see the elimination of the $10 fee to become a member of the Liberal Party.
“It was nearly the end of us”, he said about 2011.
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The firmness of Justin Trudeau’s grip on the reins of the ruling party will be put to the test today as grassroots Liberals decide whether to embrace his vision for transforming the party from an exclusive club into a modern political movement. “It is an organization that’s sustained by its relationship to the people around it and the people around us are the people of Canada”.
