Pubdate: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 Source: National Post (Canada) Copyright: 2006 Southam Inc. Contact: http://www.nationalpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286 Author: John Ivison, National Post Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) DUDE, WHERE ARE MY DELEGATES? Policy Workshops Get Lost In Frantic Jockeying Of Leadership Contest MONTREAL - The perils of holding a leadership contest and a policy convention at the same time were quickly apparent yesterday as Liberals gathered to name a successor to Paul Martin. Leadership candidates and their throngs of flag-waving supporters marched up and down the Palais des congres like so many banana republics at the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Meanwhile, the workshops where Liberals were meant to hammer out 135 or so policy resolutions were all but deserted. The 18 resolutions before the international affairs workshop were summarily dealt with in 30 minutes, with minimal debate. Along the corridor in the social justice workshop, delegates voted to lower the age of consent for anal sex and legalize marijuana. The support of 10 delegates is needed before a resolution is even debated. The Liberal party apparently couldn't find even 10 warm bodies bothered enough to discuss the age of consent, so it sailed straight to a vote and passed. At least the marijuana question received cursory discussion. One lady from Calgary argued that marijuana could cause schizophrenia, which left some of the potheads seriously bummed out. In any event, neither resolution was prioritized, so will not make it to the plenary session for discussion today. The plenary promises to be no more dramatic than the workshops, as only the resolutions that faced no opposition had the numbers necessary to be prioritized. When it came time to decide which three resolutions should be sent on for discussion by the whole convention today, there was enough opposition among the 40 or so people in the room to prevent the age of consent issue from being among them. In the event, the social justice workshop voted to bring forward a resolution calling for more affordable housing, one advocating a ban on semi-automatic weapons and another declaring that child poverty is, on balance, a Very Bad Thing. I didn't have time to check, but I bet the call to save B.C.'s endangered spirit bear won plenty of backing. After all, which heartless bastard could argue against a resolution that points out this "remarkable part of British Columbia's natural heritage is as unique to Canada as the panda bear is to China"? Not that it would have mattered if more controversial resolutions had emerged from the workshops. This is a leadership convention, with a policy debate bolted on. In three days the party will have a new leader who will use much of the material that passes through the Choices that Count policy workshops document as kindling. In the immortal words of Abba, the winner takes it all, and if you believe all that guff about democracy being a fundamental principle of governance, you'd be well advised to join a kibbutz. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek