The Hill Times continues to have the best coverage of the state of play in determining nomination rules for the current election cycle. This morning's paper breaks two stories worth noting:

• The Conservative Party has come up with a compromise insofar as protecting the nominations of their incumbents, party president Don Plett told Hill Times correspondent Abbas Rana this week. The Conservative caucus was informed this past Wednesday that a referendum of party members would be conducted, and only if two-thirds called for a nomination meeting (in that riding?; the article is not clear on that point, but it's the only way it makes sense) would one be held. Based on reaction quotes in the article, the proposal appears more popular with the caucus than with past or hopeful nomination challengers.
• Meantime, while the Liberal Party previously announced its own set of criteria for protecting an incumbent's nomination, it may be quietly setting aside previous leader Stéphane Dion's commitment to running one-third women candidates, in favour of finding "the best candidate to win the riding", report Harris Macleod and Abbas Rana. The actual issue may be one of encouraging nomination races rather than making heavy use of their leader's prerogative to appoint candidates. However, no-one quoted in the story is advocating the latter power be completely forsaken either. Senator Michael David Smith (sorry Senator, I was writing too quickly I guess) says the expectation is still that they will run at least one-third women, but that it should be done through proactive encouragement to run in a nomination race that represents a level playing field.
  

Labels: 41st General Election Nominations, Conservatives, Liberals