Are U watching?

If you're in Canada and you follow politics you are probably aware of today being the day that the Liberal party is choosing its new leader.

I am political. I am not particularly politically active. I have my causes; but I don't see them being partisan; and to be completely honest, the party politics kind of put me off. I don't belong to a party, likely never will, and usually vote on an issue basis rather than searching for a party that reflects my ideals.

But I haven't been able to stray far from the TV, radio or internet today, because I am captive to the outcome of this convention. History shows that the leader of the Liberal party stands a particularly good chance of being leader of Canada sometime soon. In fact, I can't name a single leader of the Liberal party who didn't go on to become leader of the nation. Or more accurately, I should now say leader of the nations as our parliamentarians recently voted to recognize multiple nations in Canada.

I'm calling today out as political-elite pornography day. I have never seen a day where no less than three TV networks run coverage of a leadership convention commercial free for well over 12 hours. Nothing happens fast in politics. A commercial break doesn't mean the audience will miss anything; I'm guessing that the lack of commercials really is more indicative of how self-obsessed those that are in politics and report on politics have become--they just don't want to miss an opportunity to beat someone to a scoop, or stroke their own for predicting or calling something first. The porn reference is made by me more to suggest the borderline ethics of this whole method of selecting a leader by the Libs.

No other party operates like this. No other party gets the same level of media either at its leadership conventions. Because of this, the Libs decided to stay with the delegated conventions--which aren't really good for the grassroots of the party--and deliver the excitement in further conventions. Excitement is not a word I use to describe the coverage, but I am captivated non-the-less. Probably because I'm a political junkie.

I find it strange that adults act like teenagers at a pep-rally to 'motivate' support for their candidate. But the real ethical dilemma that the process exposes is the underground, dark corner, under the stairwell deals that get made by these people, often acting with intermediaries so that accountability can't be asked nor granted for actions that, if public, would likely be deemed as 'shady' at best. I expect more from people in power... I hope I'm not alone.

If you're a Liberal party member, enlighten me why this whole process hasn't changed to be more reflective of pluralist democracy: one-member one-vote, no whipping allowed.

I think my ideals are pretty progressive, but I continue to feel shut out and put off by the nature of the way things are done. I guess my inability to compromise my respect for other peoples' issues and concerns while providing every last one of them to have an ability to influence the outcome of the way we decide to govern ourselves will keep me on the outside for a while longer...