Democratic Renewal Project stalemates in Edmonton-Mill Creek

Tonight was the first meeting of the 2009 AGM of the NDP constituency association for Edmonton – Mill Creek.

As I predicted, this riding had some noise come up. Alvin Finkel, a paid NDP member in the riding, brought his friends from his Democratic Renewal Project (of which I had access to the forum, but am no longer registered for…) out, and contested the presidency of the board.

Alvin himself didn’t run (likely to save face and appear non-partisan as the chair of the DRP) for the position, but had an associate of his, I believe the name was Earl Chowedry (don’t quote my spelling), run.

Barney Chanyi, a union leader from Edmonton Strathcona (provincially) contested the DRP nomination and strongly favoured a pro-NDP, anti-Liberal collaboration platform.

After brief and confusing speeches, including Earl mentioning his support for pre-election agreements and that he believed such an agreement would result in an NDP candidate for Mill Creek (although the past few elections would call him a liar, based on Aman Gill coming in a much closer second than the distant NDP candidates), the votes came in.

We had a tie.

After much deliberation, it was decided that we would re-vote as there may be changes in votes or moves from abstention to either side.

Nevertheless we had a second tie.

Several motions failed to resolve the issue, including one from Alvin and the “Democratic” Renewal Project that boiled down to flipping a coin for the winner (and giving the loser the Vice-Presidency) and having the chair, former candidate but non-Mill Creek resident Stephen Anderson, cast the deciding ballot.

Any attempt to offer co-presidencies was turned down, likely due to the fact both candidates had vastly different agendas for the direction of the party in Mill Creek (with one not wanting to run a candidate, and the other not wanting to see the NDP die in the province).

In the end, we followed the idea I threw out to adjourn the meeting and try again in a few weeks.

While the Alberta NDP constitution requires a minimum of 14 days notice for an AGM, the next one may not be until the week of June 8-12 and may require a larger venue, since tonights meeting already packed the Buddha Bowl on Whyte Ave (at 75 St).

So, until a few weeks from now, we’ll have peace in the riding, but both factions will definitely be actively recruiting and voicing their opinions regarding their preferred vision for opposition parties in the province.