Resisting the pull of cynicism since 1969.

Friday, June 16, 2006

The party of the mainstream CEOs

Guess how much it's going to cost, per delegate, to attend the Liberal leadership convention? $995. Yep, that's right, nine HUNDRED and ninety-five dollars.

I'm so shocked by this that I actually have little to say about it. I mean, I have a steady, decently paying job, and even I couldn't afford to shell out that much on top of an expensive flight, a hotel room, and meals. I was actually concerned about the fall NDP policy convention costing $95, because I thought it might be prohibitively expensive for a lot of would-be delegates. But the Liberals are charging more than TEN TIMES that amount, and it's not even going to be a policy convention.

The Liberal party in Germany, the Free Democratic Party, once came up with a disastrous campaign slogan that translated to "the party of those who earn more." It sounds like our own Liberals are following in their footsteps.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The delegate cost to attend the NDP convention isn't prohibitively expensive to me.

What is prohibitively expensive is the cost of the flight east from BC and the frightful cost of hotel rooms these days.

The Liberal cost is prohibitively expensive period. Even if you live in the same city the convention is in and you don't plan to stay at the hotel. Cr-aa-zy

UWHabs said...

The student fees are supposed to be half that, and I think everyone living West of Ontario will get like a 300$ travel voucher or so. And many groups including riding associations and leadership camps will help pay for those who really can't afford it.

But honestly? I'm a student, it'll be right around exam times, but if I'm selected to go, I'll be more than willing to shell out the money for it.

Phugebrins said...

The FDP are 'liberals', in that the word is a pretty broad term; they're certainly not the equivalent of the Canadian Liberal Party. The SDP are far closer to the LP, while Die Linke is a little left of the NDP.

Alison said...

Fee to attend the Green leadership convention to be held in Ottawa in August - $270.
Just sayin...

Idealistic Pragmatist said...

phugebrins,

Any credence I would have given to your comparisons went out the window when you started comparing the Linke Liste/PDS--which is made up largely of old eastern German communists and western sixties-style radicals--to the NDP. The German Greens are far closer to the NDP on the left-right spectrum than the Linke Liste/PDS is.

You're right that the FDP isn't the equivalent of the Canadian Liberals--if nothing else, their minuscule share of the vote shows that. But if the Canadian Liberals keep making their events financially inacessible to anyone who's not rolling in money, they're certainly in line to become the Canadian version of the "party of those who earn more."