A Conference About "Renewal"

The magic word for Ignatieff's "thinker's conference" is renewal. An attempt to put the minds of the Liberal Collective together into one communal recycling of tired ideas. I liken this to the "renewal" process that takes place every day in the lodges of that great Canadian icon, the beaver. An animal with a digestive track unable to extract the proper nutrients from its food at first pass, forcing those busy beavers to consume their own fecal matter to survive. This allegory of renewal with a Liberal Party Policy conference is stunning.

Personally I am excited for the Liberals to produce tangible policy so that I may analyze it for discussion. Yet somehow I suspect that no real policy will emerge from this uniting of the hive. I wonder which MPs Donolo will permit to speak publicly? If you apply the left's "moral compass" to Planet Donolo on the matter of silencing his MPs the conclusion is unavoidable; a Fascist is running Iggy's office as I'm writing this.

I have been busy hosting a forum of ideas for seminars and workshops that the Liberals can host during this conference to help expedite the renewal process. By far the most popular idea is for Bob Rae to host a special conference on running the provinces, with special guests Glen Clark and Ujjal Dosangh. This was my first attempt to run a poll in tournament format, and the participation rate has been better than some past polling. Perhaps I should have let the round 1 polls run for more than 48 hours. Not everyone visits every day. I have had a few new ideas since I first selected the "Sweet 16". I think Iggy should host a seminar either on the invasion of Iraq or coerced interrogations. I would like to see Ujjal Dosangh host a seminar on combat tactics, and John McCallum to host one on deportment. I reserve the right to "shuffle the deck" prior to the final 8. For those office pools, I will add an amendment to the constitution that you can make new picks in each new round.