On Living With The Consequences Of Your Decisions

Today's CP story about pro-lifer Trifon Haitas's bid to represent the LPoC in Toronto-Danforth is particularly interesting for the connection it draws between Haitas and the Campaign Life Coalition, who have in fact endorsed him for the position.

WK thinks this means the Libs new "supporter" category is a bad idea.  In that light, CLC head Jim Hughes' recent remarks seem particularly note-worthy:

The centerpiece of these efforts was an opening of the party to permit a new classification of “supporter” which would allow Canadians to vote in riding nominations and leadership races but which would stop short of the privileges of membership including going to conventions as delegates or voting for riding and national executives.

Jim Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition, told The Interim that the creation of supporter-status might provide an opportunity for pro-lifers within the party. Noting that in the 1990s, Liberal leader Jean Chretien over-rode riding nomination elections and parachuted candidates to prevent individuals supported by Liberals for Life from standing as the candidate of record for the Liberals, he said the new rules might encourage grassroots democracy within the party and permit “genuine nomination fights where pro-lifers have a real chance.”

Pretty clearly the CLC has been poking around the LPoC lately, looking for a means of gaining entry.  Whether or not the Party wants that, and there is an argument to be made that it should, the decision must be made with eyes wide open.  And the question here is not so much Mr. Haitas and the situation in Toronto Danforth where the Libs have a fairly healthy presence, its in those "moribund" ridings where determined single-issue activists (like the folks at CLC) might be able to make inroads because there are so few Liberal bodies on the ground to stop them.