Killing Rae in BC
Well, the talk right before today's debate seems to be between Iggy screwing up and Rae filling out some illegal forms in BC.
First off, this type of Iggy comment is a big reason why I don't think he's ready to be leader. A bit more political acumen to not do these stupid comments (he's screwing up his retractions, even!) and he'd be a fine candidate. I was hoping that he would at least be fine from the DEM until the convention, since at least then I might not have to hold my nose so much if it came down to being forced to vote for him. Does he not think before he speaks?
Then we come to Rae in BC. Some people (mostly Rae supporters) believe that this shouldn't be a problem and the campaign shouldn't be forced to lose 70+ delegates because they screwed up. Some people (supporters of other camps) tend to be along the "screw him" route, accusing the Rae campaign of significant mis-steps in the province.
I fall along the middle, and actually aligned nearly perfectly with Cherniak on this issue. I do believe that anyone who was elected with an illegal form should not be allowed to go as a delegate. That's simple enough. But what to do with those Rae delegate spots?
Rae deserves decent representation in BC. As much as I like seeing other candidates get less delegates, we should not unfairly screw over those in BC who legitimately voted for Rae. It's too late to go back and go after membership fraud. I say that Rae should be able to fill as many of those spots as he can with people who legitimately ran. So in a riding if there were 5 Rae illegal Rae delegates elected and 5 other Rae delegates who were legal but who didn't win, then Rae should be able to replace those spots. If there were not any legal delegates, then the campaign should still be allowed to back-fill up to the 2 that it allows.
The way I figure it, with that method, Rae won't be able to fill all the spots, since I would guess for most ridings there would be all illegal delegates. So maybe in total it might cost him 30-40 delegates total, assuming all 78 listed under the challenge did not fill their forms. I think that would be an adequate punishment for the fraud perpetrated, and would still allow most of those in BC who voted Rae to have some representation.
4 comments:
As much as I like seeing other candidates get less delegates, we should not unfairly screw over those in BC who legitimately voted for Rae.
The key word in your sentence is legitimately.
If Rae's support in BC is due to hundreds of illegitimate members, which is very possible given the scale of the irregularities with Form 6s, then legitimate BC Liberals, who voted for other candidates, are the ones getting screwed.
I think they should come down a bit harder on Rae than they did. Ban the people who were elected from the convention and then use the normal backfilling procedure.
Backfilling rules say that you can only fill 2 empty spots a riding. So if there are 5 empty Rae spots, he'd wind up losing 3 delegates.
Why should Rae get the privilege of backfilling?? His campaign admitted they cheated. They don't deserve a reward for that, they deserve a penalty.
Further, the 78 spots that were won via fraud brought out voters to vote for those people. Why should Rae keep these spots when voters came out to vote for those phony delegates???
We don't know if the Rae voters would have come out to vote in the same numbers if all of false delegates were never on the list in the first place.
This is blatantly unfair to the other candidates that had proper form 6's and delegates on the list.
Skip and Pebbles add the right amount of conclusions to this matter. No one admitted 'cheating', but a mistake. There are rules, as C-Cat points out, dealing with such issues. Winnie Lib is so off base that he/she would throw the legitimacy of each campaign into the wind, thus setting a stage for 10 years of Tory rule and decentralization and deregulation. I bet your Liberal MP (or candidate) in the last election, if faced a challenge in the nomination, would be hard pressed to get a 80% honour rate from those they signed up. People sign up their friends and relatives and acquaintances. Most do it the right way. Some of those people don't even know, however.
Backfill to the limit allowed but do not allow for new people to be added to the delegation list.
It's important to ensure BC retains its voice for the convention, where many important resolutions will be voted upon, not just electing a leader.
Ignatieff's legal dog would rather BC be stripped of representation.
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