Loading the dice
Niagara Falls, Ontario - Friday, November 21, 2003 - by: Joe Hueglin
"The dice appear to be loaded in favour of the proposed Progressive Conservative-Canadian Alliance merger." Bruce Cheadle, Canadian Press, November 20, 2003
	by accident or by design?
	Delegates at two National General Meetings of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada affirming that candidates would be fielded in all constituencies convinced those seeking merger with the Canadian Alliance the existing membership base had to be circumvented
	Did Peter MacKay come to believe that only through merger could a viable Opposition survive a Martin led Liberal sweep, thereby leading him to disavow the position that he was not the merger candidate he'd taken during the whole of the leadership campaign ?
	Or was it not coincidence that his "emissaries" in the secret talks were on his campaign literature? That he canceled a law suit aimed at preserving "conservative" for the Progressive Conservative Party without any consultation with Party officials? That his on-again-off-again-relationship with Stephen Harper could have been lifted from a Harlequin romance?
	By their Agreement in Principle the Progressive Conservative Party was to cease its independent existence, but how to get this approved?
	Firstly, consider ending the Party no unusual circumstance to be decided by those who'd supported its Aims and Principles but, rather, accept as members those joining to terminate it.
	Secondly, not a YES or NO choice to be voted on in each constituency, with delegates as in the Leadership Convention named proportionate to the vote, but rather reversion to the system whereby, as the Party President states
	"If you had 50 per cent plus one, you'd be able to control the (delegate selection) meeting."
	Not by accident will Delegate Selection Meetings be controlled, nor the probable result be an overwhelming vote for merger and the termination of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
	The question then becomes, will the 1 566 998 Canadians who voted Progressive Conservative in Election 2000 accept their Party being ended through loaded dice and support the merger? Or not?
	Joe Hueglin
References:
	Cheadle, Bruce, Tory party fate could be decided well ahead of merger vote, November 20, 2003, Canadian Press http://www.recorder.ca/cp/National/031120/n112099A.html
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