The Conservative Party of Canada is on the same course as the Titanic
Ottawa, Ontario - Tuesday, November 18, 2003 - by: Al Gullon
	News that 10,000 new members have joined the Tories is turning the ratification of the "merger'" from a farce into a fiasco.
	Many Progressive Conservative riding associations have seen a doubling and trebling of their membership. In the face of such an outrageous breach of democracy the two Leaders have merely said that such "double voting" would not be fair. The farce was only confirmed when a Canadian Alliance official volunteered that,
	"there certainly was no organized effort for Alliance members to buy Progressive Conservative memberships."
	With an election expected no later than April the analogy of the new Conservative Party of Canada with the maiden voyage of the Titanic is near perfect (including the month of the tragedy!).  And the Liberals will be perfectly happy to turn farce into fiasco by building the perfect iceberg.
	Their spin doctors will turn that Canadian Alliance statement into,
	"The Canadian Alliance is not (nudge, nudge) encouraging (wink, wink) double voting."
	They can then point to ìthe hordes of Canadian Alliancers who performed a hostile takeover of the Progressive Conservative party and portray the new party as
	"the same old racially- and regionally-bigoted Reform Party, now hiding behind its second cosmetic makeover"
	and thus sink the Conservative Party of Canada on its maiden voyage.
	The danger is now clear but, because of the timing of the ratification vote in the two parties, the two leaders can still make an easy course correction to avoid that Liberal iceberg. The deadline for the Canadian Alliance balloting is November 27 but the first Progressive Conservative voting is November 29. The Canadian Alliance can thus provide a list of their members who have voted on the merger to the Progressive Conservatives. Progressive Conservative officials would compare that list with riding membership lists and then forward the list of Progressive Conservative members who had already voted on the merger proposal to the Deputy Returning Officer for the election in each riding.
	Double-voting would thus be clearly prevented and any Liberal claim of a 'hostile takeover' would be seen to be utterly false.
	Al Gullon
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