CPC ConventionWatch 2008: And now, the policy plenary session we've been not-so-patiently waiting for …
By kadyomalley - Saturday, November 15, 2008 - 19 Comments
Despite every intention of not doing so, I somehow wound up liveblogging the constitutional plenary session this morning , so I figured I may as well just give up on the whole not-liveblogging idea, and start a fresh thread for the far more eagerly anticipated policy plenary, which is scheduled to get started any minute now.
(Right now, CPAC is actually running footage of George Bush’s comments on the G20 summit, but I’m assuming that they’ll switch back to the convention as soon as the plenary gets underway.)
In the meantime, for background reading on the resolutions up for debate this afternoon, check out the ITQ cheat sheets on social policy and democratic reform, health and safety and economic policy.
UPDATE: Check out Dr. Dawg and Danielle Takacs for great on the spot reporting from the convention floor. Also on the scene: Trusty Tory, Christian Conservative, Darryl Wolk, Stephen Taylor and more — check Blue Like You for the full list.
FINAL RESULTS – Constitution Resolutions (updated as voting takes place)
(All three packages available here courtesy of National Newswatch.)
Pre-plenary chatter: Ian Brodie is back, along with his grumpy Francophone sidekick, and they’re reminding the crowd how to work those newfangled electronic vote machines; Grumpy Francophone also wants to remind everyone that they may not like what they’re voting on, but that’s not the point – they still have to vote. Or something like that. Ooh, and now we’re moving onto the first vote.
P-106 – “encourage the provinces and territories to further experiment with different means of delivering universal health care utilizing both the public and private health sectors” – DEFEATED
A delegate from one of the ridings that brought this resolution forward starts out by espousing the importance of “power to the people” and implores the crowd to support the motion, which would open the minds and the imaginations to all possibilities. A big laugh from the crowd when the next person to take the microphone asks if the chair can keep the room up to date on the results of “the football game in Montreal.” Much merriment from the crowd, made moreso when Stephen Fletcher starts his intervention with a hearty “Go Bombers”. He’s also against the resolution – and, as the former parliamentary secretary for health, I think that is the closest we’re going to get to a signal from PMO as to how the government feels about it. “This motion will bring fodder to our enemies when it’s not necessary,” he predicts, and closes with a shout out to the magic fingers of Adam Smith’s invisible hand. The delegate unlucky enough to follow him tries to argue that this wouldn’t change anything — really! — it would just recognize what is already happening in the provinces. A delegate who opposes the resolution reminds the crowd that if they aren’t in power, they can’t put any policy forward – pragmatism! – but is countered by a guy who compares our system to that of Cuba and other socialist enclaves, who is then countered by Stanley Hartt himself – one of the lawyers involved in the Chaloui decision. Which I think I just misspelled. Anyway, he also points out that if they’re not in power, they can’t do anything.
P-110 – protection for workers at risk of exposure to infectious disease – PASSED
I can’t imagine this will be all that controversial – a trembling voiced delegate describes the horror being a first responder – police, firefighter, military – only to have one of “them” spit at your face, and then spend months – or longer – waiting to find out if you’ve been exposed to an infectius disease. Only one person speaks against, and it’s an odd intervention, but comes down to the argument that this is actually provincial jurisdiction. Spoilsport. The resolution sails through, and then there’s another update on the football game. Continue…
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CPC ConventionWatch 2008: Hey, who wants to amend the constitution?
By kadyomalley - Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 12:55 PM - 3 Comments
Originally posted in the running commentary/semi-liveblog/open thread:
FINAL RESULTS – Constitution Resolutions (updated as voting takes place)
(Full package available in PDF here on Conservative Party of Canada website)
C-102 – personal payment of membership – CARRIED – One delegate spoke against it, suggesting that the issue could be better handled via bylaws passed at the local level, but it passed easily.
C-103 – 60 day waiting period (Beware The Orchardwock, My Son) – DEFEATED – Not surprisingly, this one was a bit more controversial, mostly because of the threat of David Orchard stacking nomination meetings to spread organic free-range evil. At the same time, quite a few delegates are leery of anything that would make it more difficult to recruit new members to the party. “I’m sick and tired of the nomination process being hijacked by special interest groups,” counters a man from Guelph, who doesn’t think the “ability to sell a $10 membership” makes one the best candidate. (Incidentally, party president Don Plett spoke against the resolution, and promised that David Orchard’s army of darkness will never be able to swamp a nomination race. Never!)
C-104 – compulsory identification - PASSED – Not much discussion there.
C-105 – persons required to be a member (Leader, National Council members, candidates etc) – PASSED – the supporter selected to argue the motion says he was “flabbergasted” to discover no such rule existed. Nobody speaks against it, and it passes easily.
C-110 – regional elections to National Council – PASSED – Brodie’s co-moderator seemed noticeably anxious to hear from someone opposed to this resolution, since it was a matter of “some substance”. He got one from a Hamiltonian delegate, who came out against a system that could lead to quotas for certain regions, which would be bad. BAD. Wait, no, it would be GOOD, because it would ensure that some regions don’t feel underrepresented, at least relative to the number of MPs elected. A delegate from Northern Ontario is miffed that none of the candidates for National Council responded to his email asking how they would represent his region, and Red Deer thinks this resolution addresses a problem that doesn’t actually exist. Interesting: the moderator initially declared that the resolution passed via a sight-count, but an outburst of grumbling made him reconsider, and it eventually passed by electronic vote – the first resolution to go to the hand thingies so far.
C-111 – lobbyists can’t be members of National Council – DEFEATED – An impassioned defence of lobbyists taking part in party politics — “the party is not the government,” points out an Ontario delegate – in fact, this very afternoon, delegates will be debating and voting on policies, which, in effect, constitutes lobbying. The chair is definitely grumpy. Motion defeated to scattered applause.
C-112 – National Council elections (preferential ballot) -PASSED – Hey, it’s Scott Reid. No, not that Scott Reid — the Conservative MP who apparently was on the losing end of a behind-closed-doors scrap with Peter MacKay yesterday morning over a proposal to change the current weighing system for delegates, which would have given more clout to former Reform/Canadian Alliance-held ridings. He’d make a great Speaker of the House. What? I’m just saying. Anyway, he wants preferential ballots for National Council elections – of course he does, he’s like a one-man democratic reform machine – and the chair is surprised that nobody wants to speak against the resolution. Not surprisingly, it carries. I hope that makes you feel a bit better, Scott.
C-113 – filling vacancies on National Council -PASSED – The first to speak against this motion doesn’t want a riding president in one riding having the sole authority to nominate a replacement National Councillor. This definitely seems to be a controversial proposal — councillors should be elected by all delegates, not just one riding – or riding president, is the objection – but it passes anyway.
C-115 – DEFEATED – Okay, it is the resolution on Conservative Fund Canada, which would automatically make the president a director of the Fund, and would give all Fund directors delegate status. That last proposal seems a little controversial to one delegate – why the ever-expanding set of unelected ex-officio delegates? Luckily, party president Don Plett is here – again – to explain how the party is in the best financial shape ever, in no small part due to the efforts of those tireless volunteers who toil away at Conservative Fund Canada, who don’t have time to to actually run for delegate status, like all you little people who clearly have far less important lives. Don is in favour of this resolution, in case you couldn’t tell. I’m sure the fact that he is also the party president will hold no additional sway beyond his natural power of persuasion. Another delegate calls on the crowd to vote in favour of the grassroots, and against this resolution. It goes to a machine vote, and Ian Brodie is sounding a little rattled. (It’s all about the double majority requirement.) Lots of grumbling from the audience, and even a few faint cries of “Order”. Someone suggests separating the vote into two items – that gets a round of applause – but the rules don’t permit amendments on the floor. It’s defeated – 57% to 42%, I think, but I only caught a quick glimpse of the screen. Somewhere, Don Plett is mentally kicking a chair right about now.
C-116 – leadership voting – post and fax ballots (latter not allowed) – PASSED - And it’s Scott Reid again, taking a trip down unpleasant past leadership election sideshow memory lane, and reminding the crowd what a disaster the whole vote-by-fax idea turned out to be, and the resolution passes easily.
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UPDATED: CPC ConventionWatch 2008: Let the sunshine in! (Open thread)
By kadyomalley - Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 10:02 AM - 4 Comments
Starting at 10am EST, CPAC will be providing live coverage from the floor of the Conservative convention, including both the constitutional and policy plenary sessions, which will run from 11:30am to 1pm, and 2:30pm to 5pm respectively, according to the official programme.
I’m not planning to liveblog the CPAC feed in realtime, but I’ll update this post if there are any unexpected – or expected, but still noteworthy – developments. In the meantime, feel free to use the comment section as an open thread for convention-related discussion and debate.
UPDATE: Okay, a quick update before the constitutional plenary begins, which is running a respectable fifteen minutes late, which by Conservative Party standards, is almost early. This session will apparently be moderated by none other than former PMO chief of staff Ian Brodie – I know! so exciting! – which makes me wonder whether his elusive and Giornigmatic successor is somewhere in the crowd. Anyone have a sighting?
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UPDATED: CPC ConventionWatch 2008: And the winners (and losers) are …
By kadyomalley - Friday, November 14, 2008 at 9:38 PM - 35 Comments
The complete (as of Friday night, anyway) list of resolutions to be voted on at tomorrow’s plenary sessions, via Dimitri Soudas (but annotated by ITQ, which is probably evident from some of the descriptions):
Advancing Constitution Resolutions
(Full package available in PDF here on Conservative Party of Canada website)
C-102 – personal payment of membership
C-103 – 60 day waiting period
C-104 – compulsory identification
C-105 – persons required to be a member (leader, national coujncil members, etc)
C-110 – regional elections to National Council
C-111 – lobbyists can’t be members of National Council
C-112 – National Council elections (preferential ballot)
C-113 – filling vacancies on national council
C-115 - (not in package – possibly a numbering error, could be resolution on Conservative Fund Canada)
C-116 – leadership voting – post and fax ballots (latter not allowed)Advancing Policy Resolutions
(All three packages available here courtesy of National Newswatch.)
FP-106 – looking at ways to deliver health care through public and private system
P-110 – workers at risk of exposure to infectious disease -
UPDATED AGAIN: CPC ConventionWatch 2008: Special Unconfirmed Rumours From The Floor Edition!
By kadyomalley - Friday, November 14, 2008 at 2:45 PM - 30 Comments
SCROLL DOWN FOR THE LATEST UPDATES
As noted in an update to the last post, word outside the security perimeter is that the proposal to strip the Canadian Human Rights Commission of the power to investigate Section 13 hate speech complaints passed “nearly unanimously”.
That means it should be on the agenda at the full plenary tomorrow afternoon – although we’re hearing conflicting reports on whether all the resolutions that make it through today’s policy workshops will actually go to the convention floor. The final decision on what to bring forward may rest with the National Policy Committee and/or National Council.
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UPDATED: CPC ConventionWatch 2008: Or ConventionNotWatch, as may be the case
By kadyomalley - Friday, November 14, 2008 at 10:21 AM - 70 Comments
SCROLL DOWN FOR THE LATEST UPDATES
A note to ITQ readers wondering why none of the news networks — not even CPAC — are providing a live feed from the Conservative convention in Winnipeg, especially given the the sixty-odd policy resolutions that were scheduled to be debated this morning:
From: Kady O’Malley
To: Ryan Sparrow
Sent: Fri Nov 14 09:36:49 2008Are electronic media outlets being allowed to cover the floor debate on the policy and constitutional resolutions?
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CPC ConventionWatch 2008 – You’d think a global financial meltdown would inspire innovative, daring resolutions.
By kadyomalley - Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 4:22 PM - 6 Comments
If so, you’d be very, very wrong. Unlike the health and safety or social and democratic policy packages, there’s almost nothing remotely contentious up for debate as far as the party’s economic platform goes. Sure, there’s a not-so-veiled attempt to neuter labour unions here, a sneak attack on Big Patent Owner there, but overall, I’d predict that the debate over these resolutions is going to be a snoozer – which actually works out for delegates, since all three packages are scheduled to be debated at the same time, but in different rooms, Friday morning from 8:30 til noon.
Anyway, for what it’s worth, here are the resolutions that ITQ will be watching from afar:
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CPC ConventionWatch 2008 – Protecting the health and safety of Canadians, one almost-certain-to-be-ignored policy resolution at a time.
By kadyomalley - Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 11:53 AM - 15 Comments
Before we get started with the latest additions to the ITQ cheatsheet for the upcoming Conservative Party policy convention – which starts tomorrow, you guys; I know, it totally snuck up on me, too – I’d just like to point out that, according to prodigal spokeschirper Ryan Sparrow, none of these resolutions are likely to have any influence whatsoever over, you know, actual public policy, at least as far as the government is concerned. As he told the Globe and Mail last week, “They’re just like any other consultation you would have with any stakeholder group”.
Just to make sure there was no misunderstanding, he then went on to confirm that “the government will not be bound by the Winnipeg decisions,” just in case any of you card-carrying Conservatives — especially those who come from the Reform side of the family – were under the impression that your vote – or for that matter, this convention itself – actually matters. (Side note: No wonder the party seems to be doing everything short of accidentally rerouting everyone’s flights to Reykjavik to dissuade delegates and party members from showing up in Winnipeg – if a policy resolution passes in a two-thirds-empty conference room, will anyone notice?)
That, however, is not going to stop ITQ from perusing the recently leaked resolution package to point out the few proposals that could have the potential to raise a ruckus on the convention floor – or on the interweb, given the promise of an unprecedented number of fully-accredited bloggers that are expected to attend. We’ve already gone over the social policy package, so now let’s move onto health and safety, shall we?
(A quick reminder – the indented text above each proposed resolution is from the 2005 Policy Declaration, which is available here; text in bold would be added to the current PD, while text that has been struck out would be deleted, and ITQ’s comments will be italicized and in bold.)
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CPC ConventionWatch 2008 – Social and democratic policy resolutions want to be free too.
By kadyomalley - Friday, November 7, 2008 at 11:14 AM - 21 Comments
Fear not, intrepid ITQ readers who are sticking it out through the turbulent – but temporary – format tweaking that is currently underway: this post will be updated just as soon as I’ve had time to think of some smart and/or witty things to say about the policy resolutions that are up for debate at next week’s convention in Winnipeg. Which, incidentally, still have yet to be officially released, as far as I know, but are slowly but surely leaking out, despite the best efforts of the Conservative Party to keep the package under wraps until the very last possible moment. (For ITQ’s money, that likely almost nothing to do with the content, which is pretty tame by like, oldschool Reform standards, but is just another example of the control freakiness of the national office.)
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CPC ConventionWatch 2008 – ITQ Tip of the Day
By kadyomalley - Friday, November 7, 2008 at 10:44 AM - 6 Comments
If anyone wants to compare the resolutions to be debated at next week’s convention to the Policy Declaration that came out of the party’s last convention in 2005, a PDF of the final version is available on the party website here, although readers are advised that it may be wise to save a copy to their local hard drive — the html version of the text that used to be here has vanished down the memory hole, and it’s possible that the PDF was supposed to have been removed as well. It appears to be an orphan file at the moment – there are no internal links to the PDF or the now-missing text, and it doesn’t show up in the list of “key documents”.
