There was an article I saw on the Toronto Star which I found very interesting. Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate it.
Basically, it covers the New Democratic Party (NDP) Convention where they would choose a new leader. Sort of like the primaries from the U.S. What got me interested was the Star's revelation that while 85,000 delegates would be voting for 75% of the total vote, about 1,500 delegates from Labour Unions would be covering the other 25%. This means that one Labour Union vote would count as 12 votes.
One of the candidates is Toronto Councillor Jack Layton. During a meeting of delegates, he proposed that the Labour union votes should be recorded and disclosed to the public. That way we would know which Union Officials voted for which candidate. It was denounced as an invasion of privacy by the Union Delegates. From what I am reading, Layton intends to dump the current system in favour of the traditional one-person-one-vote system.
Obviously much more is at stake here. The Toronto Star, typically a left-leaning paper, is denoucing the convoluted voting system. If the NDP was for democracy, then it would do away with this voting system for what it is supposed to be: one person, one vote. It is very obvious why the Union Delegates are against Layton's Motion. The Union intends to keep control of the NDP one way or the other. Union Leaders have never loved the outgoing NDP leader, Alexa McDunnough, nor the upstart Layton. Simply put, they want the party run on their terms only. Anyone who gets in their way will be made very uncomfortable.
Layton has just won the NDP leadership race. Let's hope he follows through with the promise to overhaul their undemocratic election processes.
Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :
You think that's bad, the unions used to have a 90% vote at the Labour conference...