Conventioneering: Day 2 (Procedure)

I had spent the night before blogging about the day before, which left me exhausted and irritable the next morning. I slept in, arrived late and it didn't make a difference - judging by the empty seats in the formerly-packed hall, many other people did the same thing. The most significant consequence of this was a damping down of the debate and, as a result, a much more productive session, with resolutions being passed every five to seven minutes, allowing us to get through three or four times as many per topic area as the first day, despite each session being shorter. If you want to ram something through, put it to a vote on a Saturday morning.

On a tangentially related note, the NDP may want to tighten up requirements for delegates. Right now, any jackass who signs up for the party and pays his registration fee can come in and vote on the party platform, and in the internal elections. Given that turn out at the convention was approximately 1,500, and that youth (under 25) and unwaged early-bird registration was down around $50, an opponent with deep pockets (cough... Harper) could theoretically stack the convention floor with a majority of their own supporters for $75,050 in registration fees + $30,020 in membership dues. That's a pretty penny, admittedly, but you'd get to vote for the treasurer responsible for spending it, and pick the leader of the party receiving it. Not that anyone in Canada would do anything so underhanded for political gain (like proroguing Parliament, say).

All total, something like 70 minutes was lost in procedural bickering, similar to yesterday, including challenges to the chair. It was no longer interesting to me, and I will not elaborate on it, except to say that the chairs (Steve Morin and Maura Parte, btw) had that shit under control this time, and the challenge didn't stand.