Membership has its priveleges

The ever-nefarious Geoff Meeker digs a little deeper into the case of Bag-On-The-Head, putative candidate for the leadership of The Party, whose concerns made it into rotation on radio news the other day.

This prompts the ever-intrepid Peter Jackson to chime in with a comment:

Geoff: Your post is quite balanced. There are two issues here. One is that the Tories have made it nigh on impossible for anyone to contend Dunderdale's coronation. The timeframe is too short and the fee and signature requirements are almost insurmountable. This is fact.

And another:

… said constitution clearly states the requjrement of 50 signatures from party members, something you also questioned. If they didn't restrict endorsements to party members, it would leave room for saboteurs to muck things up.

And what is that “signature requirement”? A lot of digging on this corner's part dredged up the signature requirement as it stood when late Premier Williams “ran” for the job in 2000-01, which prompted a very helpful mole — let's call them Mole — to provide what is apparently the most recent iteration of that illustrious document, the Constitution of The Party. Lo and behold, the requirement is the same now as it was then, to wit:

C. The candidate must file with the Chief Electoral Officer a nomination form containing the signatures of fifty individuals who are members of the Party on or before the date of close of nomination established by the Convention Committee.

Which of course raises the important follow-up question: which individuals are "members of the Party"? That arcane piece of knowledge was difficult to determine until Mole helpfully provided the answer, which is contained in Article 5 of the Constitution of The Party:

1. All persons who are residents or domiciled in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador and who support the principles and aims of the Party are eligible to become members of the Party.

2. Subjects to Article 5-1 all individual members of affiliated associations and groups who support the principles and aims of the Party shall be members of the Party.

3. Notwithstanding Article 5-1 and Article 5-2, all members of the Provincial Executive Council as defined in Article 7-1 who support the principles and aims of the Party shall be members of the Party. Any member of the Provincial Executive Council who ceases to support the principles and aims of the Party will automatically cease to be a member of the Provincial Executive Council and forfeit all rights and privileges associated therewith.

The “affiliated associations and groups” mentioned are district associations, the PC Women's Association, and the like. The “persons” who are eligible to be members, as per the Constitutions definition section, are Canadian citizens. Curiously, there does not seem to be a lower limit on “membership” in The Party in and of itself, although other provisions provide that you must be 16 to do things like attend, vote in, or stand for election in district association elections (Article 13) and leadership delegate selections (Appendix A, Part II, section 2). The Constitution also provides that members must also be 18 to vote in (Article 12, section 3, para. 6) and (obviously, for statutory reasons) to run in candidate-selection meetings.

Note a couple of important absences from the membership rules. There is nothing about membership fees or cards or other such formalities. Article 5, distilled and cross-referenced to other sections of the Constitution, says that you are a Progressive Conservative if you are a Canadian citizen, “resident or domiciled”, whatever the difference there is intended to be, and you say you're a Tory.

And that, presumably subject to the age limit in Article 12, is exactly how the PC Party has conducted its late candidate nominations. As Danny Williams and John Babb reminded voters in the 2008 by-election districts:

Voting will be held in the District of Baie Verte - Springdale on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in three locations... Voters must be residents of the district and are reminded to bring two pieces of identification, one of which should be a piece of photo identification.

Similar language obtained in notices to voters in the 2009 by-elections in Straits and White-Bay North and Terra Nova, and the 2010 contests in Topsail and Conception Bay East-Bell Island.

Note, importantly, the reference to “Voters”. Not “Members of the PC Party”, whatever the M-word is supposed to mean in this context. Indeed, as The Party officials, and the nomination contestants themselves, have repeatedly boasted on gabby radio during the brief nomination campaigns, The Party is an “open” party, eschewing membership formalities and fees altogether in the name of democracy blah blah blah.

Yes, it might be hard to prove that you are a “member”, but it's equally hard for anyone else to prove that you aren't.

So with all that, with an open party that has no membership requirement other than to tell yourself you're a Tory, and with no apparent limit on the age of “members” who can nominate The Party's The Leader... how can it be said that the requirement to get the signaturs of fifty “members” is an “insurmountable” one, and designed to disallow the room for “saboteurs to muck things up”?

So, Mr/Mrs/Ms Bag-on-the-Head, and saboteurs, have at 'er. All you need to do now is find fifty self-styled Tories (children will do) and $5000 measly bucks.

Go nuts!