I attended the Green Party of Canada Convention tonight wearing my “GlobeCampus hat” looking to write a story about the youth summit they are holding as part of the convention.
At the same time as the youth summit, the motions workshops were underway.
Motion workshops are when members of a political party can propose ideas and, usually, the fringe motions die a quiet death there.
That’s not what happened today – the grown-ups weren’t in the room and a motion passed recommending the Green Party take a position in favour of the legalization of polygamy.
Laura Payton, who was in the room, reports for Sun Media.
What happened? Where were the grown-ups?
As one delegate pointed out to me, they were busy in training sessions.
The Green Party was holding two training sessions simultaneous to the motions workshop.
Green Party candidates were two doors down the convention hall in “Candidate training.”
The Green Party’s hopeful MPs – the people that have to sell policies passed at the convention - were not in the room.
Their campaign managers, financial officers, and fundraisers were two further doors away from the action. They were in training sessions as well.
In short, the very people who build, maintain, and manage the party left the keys in the ignition and the result is the Green Party’s public flirtation with polygamy.
Tomorrow, the grown-ups will put this car back into the driveway. The only question is how much body work will be needed to make it roadworthy again.
Postscript: I’m hoping to interview Elizabeth May for my GlobeCampus piece tomorrow morning. I’ll be at the plenary that will vote down the polygamy motion. My GlobeCampus piece about the Youth Summit will appear early in the week at http://www.globecampus.ca/joeycoleman
Do me a favour and pass along a couple of questions for me:
“Ms May, how do you justify attacking the Conservative Party as undemocratic when your leadership violates your own party’s constitution?”
“How does your concern over the numbers of Canadians who choose not to vote compare to your concern over the number of Green Party members who chose not to vote in the online ballot on your leadership?”
“That’s not what happened today – the grown-ups weren’t in the room and a motion passed recommending the Green Party take a position in favour of the legalization of polygamy.”
There was no motion to legalize polygamy at the GPC convention this weekend. The ‘grown ups’ were in the room. The motion being debated by the membership was a motion concerning polyamory. It may be the opinion of many that this motion should not be considered by the party at this time. It was the opinion of many that the spirit of the motion was legitimate but not enough research was done to understand the impact of legalization of these relationships on children’s rights, custody and child support.
The convention is exactly the place where these ideas and moral quests need to be debated in open forum rather than being swept under the rug. The motion was properly debated and considered by the membership and publicly defeated.
For anyone who has done even cursory research into polyamory they will understand that there is a human rights issue here that needs to be examined as does the implications of parental human rigts and the human rights of children. There is a difference and it’s a necessary debate in society.