Federal Liberal conventions are supposed to give Grits a chance to hold their elected members to account. But it seems some parliamentarians don't think answering questions from the rank and file is a priority - despite recent commitments by the party to "foster greater engagement" with the grassroots. The accountability session at this past weekend's British Columbia general convention was attended by just four MPs - Don Bell, Raymond Chan, Hedy Fry and Blair Wilson. Absentees included Sukh Dhaliwal, Ujjal Dosanh, Keith Martin and Stephen Owen - as well as senators Larry Campbell, Ross Fitzpatrick and Mobina Jaffer.
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None of the Senators are elected and therefore are not worthy of trying to ascertain if they
are accountable. They are a waste of member's time.
The number of Liberal MP's present and the number of MP's absent is sure indication of how important the MP's regard the members who uphold the party which gets the MP's elected.
But these things aren't really accountability sessions.
You'll see the MP do more fancy figure skating around issues at those things than you'd see Naslund do his constant performance of pirouettes and double axels with his arms out at a critical Canucks game.
All four of them will be defeated, for the sake of Canadians.
What is more, not a single delegate from Ujjal Dosanjh's riding, Vancouver South attended the convention.
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