Belinda's Big Ideas

Belinda Stronach hasn't been heard from much since she finally figured out that Daddy's money couldn't buy her the Liberal leadership. And her mission to spearhead democratic renewal under the Paul Martin government also apparently ran to ground.

But lo!

She's actually handed in her paper. A little late to do anything with it, however:

Federal Liberals should tear a page from the Northwest Territories book of consensus government and give backbench MPs the right to vote for their own cabinet, MP Belinda Stronach says.

She makes the recommendations in a wide-ranging paper that also calls on the party to drop membership fees to $1 per individual, adopt a one-person, one-vote system for selecting the leader and substantially streamline the party structure.

Her suggestions come as the party embarks on an internal review.

In the report, which Ms. Stronach expects to disseminate across the party, the MP for Newmarket-Aurora says the party needs a grassroots rejuvenation if it wants to resonate with Canadians in the West and Quebec, as well as in the rest of the country.

All of these ideas could have been stolen from an old Reform Party policy paper years ago. But as with every other idea the Liberals come up with, its progenitors are usually mocked for coming up with it until it becomes popular enough for the Liberals to steal.

This paper will never be heard of again, however. Its ideas threaten the very raison d'etre of the Liberal Party: power in their party elite's hands alone at all costs.

Source: Globe and Mail