Angry in the Great White North

Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff is going to force MPs to sell the Liberal Party.  If an MP doesn't maintain a certain monthly minimum of members and donors each month, he or she is going to be forced to fight a nomination battle:

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has put his MPs on notice that they will have to meet new membership and donor targets in their ridings or face the prospect of an internal challenge to their right to carry the party banner.

In a move aimed at rebuilding the party's membership base and fundraising abilities, the Liberal Leader is insisting that sitting MPs maintain a roster of 400 party members and a minimum of 40 monthly 'Victory Fund' donors, those signed up to shell out at least $10 or more per month.

MPs who received fewer than 20,000 votes in the last election will be allowed to have a lower membership threshold, based on a formula.

In return, Mr. Ignatieff would not allow nomination battles in the ridings of individuals who successfully meet the targets. One source said the number of Liberal-held ridings with 400 or more members can be measured in the dozens. There are currently 77 Liberal MPs and 308 ridings across the country. The move is one in a series that Mr. Ignatieff is making to rebuild a party whose fundraising and organization has come under criticism.

What a great idea!  Now MPs will be motivated to sign up donors.

Did I say motivated?  I really meant desperate.

And therein lies the problem.

Imagine I'm a Liberal MP.  I'm at 30 Victory Fund donors under my name, and I've hit a plateau.  I've called and called, and I can't seem to make that number budge.  And when I close my eyes, I can imagine seeing Michael Ignatieff tearing up my nomination papers, because simply delivering a riding is not good enough anymore.

Then someone comes knocking at the door, promising to deliver a dozen donors.

I'm saved!

But at what price?

You see the problem now?  The whole point of donation limits is to render everyone equally worthless.  I mean, at a limit of $1100 per year, a bank executive can't help much more than a waitress at a coffee shop.  That's not a bad thing.

Now Michael Ignatieff has undermined that principle, but just within the Liberal Party.  Those last five or ten donors could be worth thousands.

Literally.

Take my riding of Cambridge, for example.  The allowed limit for a nomination fight is just over $17,000.  Now nomination fights don't usually spend the maximum, but that doesn't mean nomination battles are cheap.  Joyce Murray spent over $6000 to secure her nomination in Vancouver Quadra, while her opponent Cindy Grauer spent over $8000 just to come in second.

For a sitting MP, those last donors afford protection against a nomination fight that would cost thousands, and even worse, might end with the MP becoming the former MP of the riding (and still stuck with the cost of the nomination fight).

How much is that worth?  What promises would be made to secure those last few donors?

Or turn it around.  Someone wants to break into politics.  Thanks to Michael Ignatieff's new rule, that person has a way to shake loose a sitting Liberal MP.  All that person has to do is convince potential donors to wait before bringing out the cheques.

Controlling donors (whether delivering them to an MP trying to make his quota, or holding them back) might not be all that hard to do.  In many ridings, and especially in Liberal ridings, there are blocks of voters.  Who can forget how Navdeep Bains delivered 250 Indo-Canadian votes to Gerard Kennedy, and ultimately to Stephane Dion, in the 2006 leadership race?

If Michael Ignatieff is lucky, his plan will result in a small bump of donations, and a lot of stressed out and angry MPs.  If he's unlucky, there will be donors-for-favours scandal in the Liberal Party future, and someone will be on TV saying this was bound to happen, and why didn't anyone see it coming.

Hey, I did.