Canada's Left - A "People's Democracy"

When Dominic LeBlanc withdrew from the Liberal leadership race on Monday, he said it had been a privilege “running for the leadership of the greatest democratic institution in the Western world.” In keeping with the democratic principles he so admires, he then called on his party to short-circuit it’s own constitutional leadership selection process and anoint Michael Ignatieff forthwith.

When asked by reporters how he could reconcile his professed love of the democratic process with his desire to see Mr. Ignatieff in the leader’s office (and, presumably himself in a prominent front-bench role) without a vote by more than the 77 Liberal MPs and 58 Liberal senators, Mr. LeBlanc offered the heartfelt response of all great defenders of democracy: “The urgency of the situation requires extraordinary measures.”

Sorry? Is our country being invaded? The urgency of just what situation requires the suspension of rank-and-file Liberals’ right to choose their party’s boss?

Oh, right, I forgot: the urgent need to replace the Conservatives as government without an election; another time-honoured democratic tradition.
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Thus the man they last week proposed to foist on Canada as an unelected prime minister — Stéphane Dion — they have this week tossed over the rail in favour of foisting Michael Igantieff on their membership.

Such are the heavy obligations that come with being such a magnificent democratic institution.

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Well, there's apparently one word that Dominic Leblanc has omitted. Most likely he was talking about people's democracy - the one Soviet style; you know, when you come to vote and they give you a ballot which says "cross out all candidates, leaving out one". Except that "other" candidates which could be crossed out, weren't even there and the only candidate to be left out was already there.

All that voters had to do was - getting the ballot from the poll officer, walking across the room to the ballot box and dropping the ballot in. Few hours later, the news anchors were reporting about the great show of unity and support for democracy and progress, with 98-99% of the voters endorsing the Block of Communists and Non-Party Members.

Here we have a "progressive coalition". With the Liberals' junior partners too giving people's democracy a try:

The NDP is getting really desperate, with one MP even resorting to falsifying the results of an online poll on her site. In the space of just 20 minutes, she deleted 80 votes from her online poll that had been cast against her position.

She should have known better. In this blogging and Web 2.0 age, such manipulations cannot be covered up. Shame on the NDP.

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Oh, come on guys! Next time don't even add the "No" option to your poll. Make it much simpler: if you agree, click this button, if you don't agree - close the browser. That would spare you the need to tamper with the results every time the outcome doesn't match your declaration.