Liberal Party needs a grassroots lesson

Some in the Liberal Party of Canada need a serious lesson in grassroots democracy. After all this talk about whether the party should have involved the Liberal rank and file in choosing the next leader, you would think we would all know what “grassroots” means by now.

It’s already been established that the party opted not to consult the grassroots, but instead chose a closed-door, invitation-only process that will lead to an uncontested Michael Ignatieff being installed as leader.

But now some are doing rhetorical back flips to justify this decision.

On CBC Newsworld’s “Politics” program on Dec. 10, host Don Newman asked his two Liberal panelists if they thought the “grassroots” would be satisfied with the process that chose Ignatieff as leader.

The response by David Herle, a Liberal consultant and an advisor to former Prime Minister Paul Martin, was shockingly out of touch. I was so surprised by his response, I had to rewind the clip on my DVR to make sure I heard him correctly. He said: “I think the grassroots were consulted. I consider the riding presidents of the Liberal Party and the defeated candidates of the Liberal Party to be the grassroots, to be the rank and file of the party. I don’t think we have more important people in the party than the people who perform the function of riding president.”

Is he kidding? If the riding presidents and defeated candidates are the grassroots, what are the campaign volunteers? The dirt? What about the people who knock on doors canvassing for votes, the people who hand out literature on street corners, the people who seal fundraising envelopes and hang up campaign signs? What about the people who dutifully pay their party membership fees so they can have a say in the direction of the party? They are the grassroots.

Bob Rae was right. In order to win back power, the Liberal Party must be prepared to open itself up and become a more democratic institution.

Fairly or not, the conventional wisdom is that the Liberal Party is just waiting to win back power – to once again become the Natural Governing Party – without being serious about its need to go through a rejuvenation process. Herle’s comments just reinforce that the conventional wisdom is right.