3:00pm
I must say, so far, today has been a yawn-fest. Lots of rah-rahing, and a lot of boring discussion about constitutions and procedures. And lots of people who get up during the comments to complain. The Liberals passed a new constitution, after much debate. Apparently, it’s a whole new constitution. Joy.

3:20pm
Finally, some excitement. The Party is debating whether to change their leadership process to one member-one vote. Mark Holland, MP for Ajax-Pickering, gave a passionate appeal to change it. So did Keith Martin and Jean Lapierre (I thought Jean was going to blow a gasket). Others have made misrepresentations about this motion — saying that it would end conventions. It won’t. You can still have a convention. I come down clearly on this — a one member-one vote is needed, badly. The current process allows members to choose only their first choice. Delegates, by contrast, can choose their first, second, third etc choices (Belinda Stronach just made this point). The fact is, it costs $2000 per person to come to the convention and if this select group chooses a leader, it will invariably favour the elite over the grassroots. The vote is upcoming… this is a major test of whether the Liberals are serious about reforming themselves…

3:50pm
Well, the eites Liberals privileged enough to be able to afford coming to this convention have chosen to protect their privleged positions. The more things change the more they stay the same. The Liberals are the party of the elites.
FOR — 299
AGAINST — 318