Friday, May 27, 2005

Gone to the dogs

I always knew that the Liberal Party was going to the dogs.
Rob confirms it with his post of a report from the Toronto Red Star:

To join the Liberals and vote for the party leader, a prospective member must sign a form and pay $10. Under party rules, that fee is not supposed to be paid by someone else.It sounds simple. But in practice, as Liberals themselves admit, various factions end-run the rules by engaging in massive sign-ups in which organizers, rather than the prospective members, pay the $10 fees.That means that the faction with the most blank membership forms and the most money can win. Indeed, one of the keys to Martin's success over Chrétien was his ability to change the party rules in key provinces so that blank forms.All that was needed then was money for the $10 fees. In B.C., where Liberal membership skyrocketed from 3,000 to about 40,000, that meant about $370,000.Some of this undoubtedly came from the new members themselves. But clearly, some did not. In one riding where the Basi Boys had been active, the Vancouver Sun found some cases of duplicate memberships and others where new members denied paying their own fees.One member turned out to be a dog that had been dead for five years. But he, too, was welcomed to the Liberal party.He even received a Christmas card from the-then jolly but now very beleaguered Martin.

Our dogs, Jasper the wonder barker and Maguire the lovable lug, are extremely hissed off at this report. When they asked why they couldn't join the Liberal Party, I told them that they were banned by me. At which point, Maguire jumped up, knocked a box of treats out of my hand, and gave me a righteous face-wash. Jasper, who is older and smaller and not as spry, grabbed some treats that had spilled and split.
Memo to the Libranos: Jasper and Maguire can't be bought.

P.S.: Aren't the Basi boys under charges of drug dealing?