Travels In LiberalLand

I have been granted the honor of blogging the LPoC showcase downtown today.  I take these things seriously, so I will probably try to write a quick post about each of the candidates pitch speeches, though this ambition may get scaled back to Joyce and Justin's.  Maybe MHF's if I'm in a bad mood and want to hurl abuse.  Physically, I will be there for at least part of the show so as to absorb the triumphant vibe that surely must emanate from such a transplendant coagulation of Liberalness, but  may skip out the boring bits (ie any musical tributes).  Again, I'm not sure what I'll do when Ms. Findlay speaks; I may stick around  to observe how quickly the room turns against her.  I'm bringing one of those fancy digital stop-watches that can measure to the 1/100th of a second.

Otherwise I will be splitting time among ancillary events, particularly the Progblogs do at Omar's place.

As to the issue of slow ticket sales, I'm told this problem has been overblown.  Its also been rumored that the LPoC has tasked ex MP Joe Volpe with scaring up a few extra bodies.  So we'll see if my dead grandma is in attendance.

I will also be on twitter for the event. where I write as @Bigcitylib2.  At some point soon, though not necessarily today, I will endorse one of the candidates.  Not that anyone cares.  But I will.

LPoC Registration Cracks 100,000

From an email I received yesterday evening from Matt Certosimo, the National Membership Secretary:

Presumably, the deadline extension will give the party time to contact anyone who is serious about following-up on their original contact, although I expect the final tally will be embarrassingly low.  That said, if Joyce Murray hangs tough for the next couple of weeks this could still be an interesting race.  She can't win, but her message of LPoC/NDP cooperation is resonating in some quarters, and I'd be curious to see if she can move the field, or what is left of it, in her direction a bit.  I sincerely hope the T.O. showcase isn't cancelled.  I was told there would be food.

As for Coyne's column this morning, ignore it.  He's been rehearsing bits of it on twitter since last week; the honest outrage it expresses is all fake.

Martha Hall Findlay Flip Flops On Northern Gateway

I haven't heard this mentioned in any of the coverage of yesterday's LPoC leadership debate, but on February 26th MHF was for Northern Gateway Pipeline; as of yesterday's debate, she's sudddenly agin it.  That's what you call a policy reversal...a waffle...a dither...a flip flop, even.

Worth noting too that among the contenders only Joyce Murray has come out against Kinder Morgan in addition to the NGP.  Joyce is a B.C. gal, and I'm assuming her opposition is a sign of which way the winds are blowing out on the left coast over that project.