It’s the Liberal Party’s big policy convention in Halifax this weekend, and it’s already consumed with the pre-election narrative, never mind that said election is a year-and-a-half away. And while it’s supposed to be about policy, and developing the ideas that are intended to shape the next election platform, it’s really more about morale, and finding inspiration to go out and do the door-knocking (as Sophie Grégoire Trudeau’s keynote spoke about). It’s about reminding the party that they need to keep up a united front and “have the Prime Minister’s back,” and totally not worry that they won’t be able to keep all of their seats in Atlantic Canada or the West. No ma’am.

When it comes to the policy resolutions, they are very much of the left-wing/progressive side of the party. Almost entirely so, in fact, some of them exactly the same kinds of demands that the NDP have made, making me wonder what’s left in their big tent for the more fiscally conservative, “blue Liberal” members to grasp onto. The most talked about resolution so far is that around decriminalising small amounts of all drugs so that they can be treated as a public health issue instead of a criminal one, as has been done successfully in Portugal. In contrast to the health minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould says she’s open to decriminalising, and reforming prostitution laws (which is another resolution). In an interview with Power & Politics, however, Petitpas Taylor refused to say one way or the other how the government would consider a successful vote by the convention on the issue, deferring instead to keeping an open mind.

But while everyone is going to talk policy on a superficial level this weekend, I have to raise the point that the party has so centralized their operations and policy machinery that this is only superficially a grassroots movement, and instead is an exercise in confirming the policies that the leader’s office is floating. Because the Liberals have so disempowered their grassroots when they changed the party constitution at their previous convention, there is little hold for the grassroots any longer. This is a problem with how our system is supposed to work, and is a direct result of the ways in which we have so utterly presidentialized party leadership contests so that they are now repositories of vast power that can’t be challenged, and everything is being reworked to be top-down instead of bottom-up. While this is all being done under the rubric of being modern, and nimble, it’s corrosive to how politics is supposed to work in this country, and we’ll see how long it takes for party members – err, “registered Liberals” to figure out that they’re being played and they start to demand their rightful power back.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau has completed his visit to the UK without incident, and now his critics grouse that he’s being praised for an average trip post-India. Seriously?
• Chrystia Freeland is back in Washington to continue NAFTA talks over the weekend.
• Conservative MPs have their backs up after military officials called their questions about Mali as a “war zone” nonsense, citing it’s a complex conflict zone.
• The Canadian helicopters going to Mali will be equipped as they were in Afghanistan, and using the same operating playbook.
• After warnings that a CP Rail strike would be “cataclysmic,” and demands that strikers be ordered back to work, the union says any strike action is delayed.
• Here’s an exploration of how divided opinions among First Nations are on pipelines like Trans Mountain – many are in support, some want equity stakes.
• There are concerns that returning ISIS fighters could have knowledge of chemical weapons (though the likelihood of getting materials in Canada is small).
• Here’s a look at how families are missing the signs of radicalization in white youth, such as Alexandre Bissonnette.
• More takes on the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Comeaufrom Leonid Sirota, Philippe Lagassé, Chantal Hébert, and Andrew Coyne.
• Susan Delacourt suspects that Trudeau will be preoccupied with the looming Ontario election at this weekend’s Liberal convention.
• Colby Cosh has an interesting look at the Trans Mountain issue as NIMBYism run amok, and what the underlying dynamics in Alberta are bubbling under the surface.
• My weekend column looks at how the new Independent senators are struggling with their role as independents in the upper chamber.

Odds and ends:

Commonwealth Leaders have decided to back Prince Charles to succeed his mother as head of the organization when she passes.

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