So I figured I’d finally poke my head out of the fox hole I’ve been in and actually say something. It’s unfortunately I didn’t manage to blog as much as James during the campaign but things just took on a version of light speed – law exams, local campaigning, planning my move now that law school is done, etc. Not to mention it took a few days for the sting of election night to come down to a manageable soreness. That, and a few pints here & there.I’m not going to go into a vague rambling speech about the need for reform of the Party. I think/hope nobody will really fight that view now – it’s pretty damn obvious. What I want to do is put to throw out two things.Firstly, check out the New Liberal initiative . It’s being put together by some very smart young professionals and hopefully can grow into something that exists both to compliment the Party but also outside the Party.Secondly, I want to float an idea. It’s one of many that I’m sure will fly around in the coming weeks, months and years, but it’s one I think is worthy of consideration. Kyle Olsen has thrown out some interesting ideas on commissions and what we should do about them (not to mention what we should do about the overall structure of the Party.)I think I’ll throw out an idea that I’ve always had in my head. The four commissions of the Party exist to give a voice to potentially otherwise disenfranchised groups. However, as Kyle so adroitly points out, there is little way for other Party members to really get engaged within the Party. We should look to creating entities that are not commissions, per se, but still serve to facilitate collaboration & connections between Liberals sharing a common characteristic or goal.Basically, here’s my proposal – we establish commissioned organizations (the current four for now) and non-commissioned organizations. NCOs would not have the benefits COs have in that they would not have seats on executives, etc. However, they would be recognized by the Party and promoted actively.The best way I could describe the relationship between the Party and an NCO would be akin to the relationship between a Student Union and any campus club. The SU serves to give legitimacy to the club, perhaps gives it a little fiscal support, but the club maintains it’s autonomy to run it’s own internal affairs (subject to some basic limits) and does not participate in the decision making process of the SU itself. However, the SU supports these clubs because it knows that clubs enrich the campus experience of it’s members.This idea could lead to some really interesting possibilities. For instance, lets say an NCO was established that was based on profession. If the Liberal Lawyers Guild (yes, I’d love for it to be called a guild, deal with it) were to be created, the Party could request that 6 months before a policy convention, this NCO create a working paper that goes through all the various areas that are particularly important to justice, or social programs, or whatever is important for the legal community at the moment. These working papers could dramatically improve both the dialogue at convention as well as possibly the quality of the resolutions that are presented.That’s just one idea I have floating around. I’m still a little shell-shocked (plus I’m in the middle of moving, transitioning from student life to professional life, etc.), but I’m hoping to have some other ones in the future. Naturally, I’d also love to hear thoughts on my proposal.
