The Conservatives announced over the weekend that their policy had convention had been postponed to November in order to give more time to their leadership contest – but then had to spend the rest of the day explaining that no, this didn’t mean that the leadership was going to be held in November, and no, they hadn’t made any final decisions on the leadership, and so on. Because it would have been great if they’d actually said that in their press release.

The Conservatives have postponed their convention until November for the leadership process, so that gives us an idea of how much time they’re giving themselves for it. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/UkVE4hSw6o

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) December 21, 2019

With this in mind, I figured I would do my best to clarify what part of the problem is here, which is that they don’t actually have leadership conventions anymore, but “leadership events” where all of the mailed in ranked ballots get counted up in a dramatic way to try and replicate the fun and excitement of a delegated convention. One might assume that they might try to kill two birds with one stone and have both events at the same time, but we’ll see if that is actually the case.

This having been said, we also need to remember that so long as we have a system where there is direct election of party leaders by their membership, and that those leadership candidates are running on policy slates as though this were an American presidential primary, it starts making party policy conventions into a bit of a farce. Why? Because so long as leaders feel empowered to move ahead with the policies that they have a “democratic legitimacy” to enact, then what does the grassroots policy preferences matters? We’ve seen this erosion across parties for years, and it will continue apace under this Conservative system just as it has with everyone else so long as we keep up this bastardized system of membership votes for leaders.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau is vowing to move ahead with plans to let municipalities further restrict handguns even if premiers aren’t keen to cooperate.
• The RCMP have arrested two people in Quebec in relation to threats made against the prime minister.
• Bill Morneau is (quite rightly) calling out the Conservatives for their “irresponsible” talk of a possible recession, which only serves to spook markets.
• The prostitution laws brought in by the Conservatives are due for statutory review, which will have to be on a committee’s priorities when Parliament returns.
• The Royal Canadian Navy is planning on sending the new Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships to help with hurricane relief in the Caribbean as part of their regular duties.
• Canada is joining the condemnation against Russia and China for vetoing aid for Syrians civilians at the UN Security Council.
• Some sixty-nine Canadians are off to help fight the wildfires in Australia.
• The crew at Maclean’s got some more details on the backroom drama about what led to Andrew Scheer’s ouster/resignation.
• Conservative MP Len Webber got the first private members’ business slot of this parliament, and he wants to use tax forms to increase organ donations.
• Jody Wilson-Raybould says that life as an independent MP can be “lonely.” Right, and that’s also what happens when you burn bridges.
• A few serious professors are letting it be known that “Wexit” is a deeply unserious movement.
• Susan Delacourt contrasts Justin Trudeau’s evolving view of selfies with those of Elizabeth Warren in the US, and whether they are a barrier to communicating.

Programming Note: I’m taking a break from blogging until the New Year, so behave yourselves, and enjoy the time off.

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