Any of the small, local printing companies who usually make a fair bit of cash from political campaigns can keep their printing presses chilled during the upcoming NDP leadership campaign.
Any candidates who make it past the other restrictions must print any campaign materials like flyers and householders in unionized printing plants. The campaign rules released on Wednesday are plain:
“Candidates shall not use non-unionized companies for the production of any campaign material., where such services are available.”
That’s great for the largest printer in the province but it shuts out pretty every other shop.
Dictatorship of the CEO
The party executive will appoint a chief electoral officer to oversee the leadership contest. Under section 13, the CEO has the unrestricted right to expel a candidate based on nothing more than a written complaint that a written complaint from a candidate or party member who feels “feels aggrieved by the words or actions of another candidate.”
The CEO can “deal with the complaint in whatever manner she feels is appropriate, including, in severe circumstances, the disqualification of a candidate from the leadership race.”
There is no right of appeal for any decision by the CEO.
Membership
The campaign rules refer to a list of “active” members of the party. Each candidate will get a list once they’ve been approved.
There’s no definition of “active” member in the party constitution. That leaves the door open for a Cabana-style manoeuver in which party insiders invent conditions and rules to suit their own purposes.
There’s no word yet on the convention itself and how that will run.
-srbp-