I’m not going to bother spending a lot of time examining what happened during this election, at least not publicly. Mr. Igantieff, a leader I respect and admire, did the right thing by taking responsibility for this loss and resigning. Hopefully in the next days and months other people in senior leadership positions in the party will do the same.
It is time for the Liberal Party to stop looking at its past, and start to look to its future. We now have at least four years to figure out who and what we are as a party. We need to listen to our membership, our base, and ask for a new group of leaders to step forward with vision for the future. It is not the time to get mired in recriminations over the past, or to play the blame game.
For what it is worth, I have a few ideas about how we should move forward as a party. I know many will disagree with me, and that’s fine. But this is what I think:
1. No merger. No matter what happened in this election, there is a great deal of difference between the NDP and the LPC. Let those in the party who wish to abandon ship do so without dragging the rest of us with them. Now is the time to redefine ourselves as an independent voice of the centre, not join the radical left.
2. Delay the leadership battle for a year or two. We have at least 4 years before an election. Why rush into a leadership battle? Lets appoint an interim leader who doesn’t have long term leadership goals, and lets take some time as a party to adjust to our new realities before we vote on a new leader.
3. Lets take a serious look at our governance issues. The LPC has a lot of structural issues that always seem to be a low priority, pushed aside for elections or leadership or whatever. Our membership rules are archaic, our financial processes in most of the country are burdensome, and our riding associations are either in disarray or ignored. Lets take this opportunity to make the essential systemic changes that will allow this party to rebuild stronger and better than it was before.
3.1 Silos. We have to many silos in our party. Riding executives, local campaign, provincial executives, provincial campaigns, national executive, national campaign, caucus, Leader’s office, Federal Liberal Agency, staff… All of these organizations are independent and there is a lack of broad based accountability from one to the other. I believe we need to reduce the number of organizations we have within this party, and build strong accountability mechanisms between those that end up remaining.
4. Our policy process is broken, and it needs to be fixed. I have friend who constantly talks about how policy does not determine election results. And he’s right. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t important. Policy is the process that allows a party to encourage and motivate its volunteers, and it is vehicle used by our candidates to interact with the voter. The Policy portion of the upcoming convention is now a meaningless footnote. Lets take the next four years and develop a policy process that works, and then use it to create a winning platform for the next election.
I don’t know what the future of this party is, but I know that I am committed to seeing it has one. We have been given 4 years to figure all of this stuff out. Now is the time to come together as a party, rebuild, and move forward. In many, many ways, the work has just begun. So lets role up our sleeves, and get to it.
