Party Renewal Should Fix Membership Irregularities

Of the membership irregularities and the systems in place to deal with those situations, clearly structures need to change to prevent and to stop these events from happening in the future.

Incidents involving Joe Volpe and Michael Ignatieff with their alleged irregularities in their records are examples of the failure in the Party that would help prevent individual members of a campaign from illiciting misguided memberships. The Liberal Party also needs a better method of dealing with notification and resolution of complaints.

The Michael Ignatieff campaign points out that the Party failed to notify them adequetly about a complaint against them, thus leaving them uninformed and faced with accusations that were not explained. For an article discussing the fault in the party structure in regards to the Ignatieff campaign, you can click here.

Gerard Kennedy has stood up against the problems facing the Party and in this article provides insight into the root of possible irregularities that can occur within the Liberal Party, and as they must be dealt with, he provides solutions.

Rival leadership hopeful Gerard Kennedy said the irregularities demonstrate that the party itself needs to be reformed, with tighter membership eligibility rules, tough sanctions against those who break the rules, and checks on the leader's power.

"I think there's a sense that people can do things with impunity because they're going to elect a leader who has all the power in the world and there's no such thing as consequence for anything," Kennedy said in an interview.

"You basically have a presidential system without any checks and balances . . . I believe that's unhealthy."