ITQ cheat sheet

By Kady O’Malley

The complete (as of Friday night, anyway) list of resolutions to be voted on at tomorrow’s plenary sessions, via Dimitri Soudas (but annotated by ITQ, which is probably evident from some of the descriptions):

If so, you’d be very, very wrong. Unlike the health and safety or social and democratic policy packages, there’s almost nothing remotely contentious up for debate as far as the party’s economic platform goes. Sure, there’s a not-so-veiled attempt to neuter labour unions here, a sneak attack on Big Patent Owner there, but overall, I’d predict that the debate over these resolutions is going to be a snoozer – which actually works out for delegates, since all three packages are scheduled to be debated at the same time, but in different rooms, Friday morning from 8:30 til noon.

Before we get started with the latest additions to the ITQ cheatsheet for the upcoming Conservative Party policy convention – which starts tomorrow, you guys; I know, it totally snuck up on me, too – I’d just like to point out that, according to prodigal spokeschirper Ryan Sparrow, none of these resolutions are likely to have any influence whatsoever over, you know, actual public policy, at least as far as the government is concerned. As he told the Globe and Mail last week, “They’re just like any other consultation you would have with any stakeholder group”.

Fear not, intrepid ITQ readers who are sticking it out through the turbulent – but temporary – format tweaking that is currently underway: this post will be updated just as soon as I’ve had time to think of some smart and/or witty things to say about the policy resolutions that are up for debate at next week’s convention in Winnipeg. Which, incidentally, still have yet to be officially released, as far as I know, but are slowly but surely leaking out, despite the best efforts of the Conservative Party to keep the package under wraps until the very last possible moment. (For ITQ’s money, that likely almost nothing to do with the content, which is pretty tame by like, oldschool Reform standards, but is just another example of the control freakiness of the national office.)