Desperate times, desperate measures

Being a fly on the wall in some of the back room meetings at the Liberal convention in Ottawa last week would have made for some interesting listening.

I'm pretty sure that the party's stance on legalizing marijuana is intended to lure young voters into the Liberal fold. But I'm also pretty sure is will drive senior voters away in droves.

The debate on the monarchy will do about the same. I get the sense that most voters are ambivalent about the Royal Family. But again, many seniors are tied to the monarchy and many Canadians admire the Queen - and are smitten with the Will and Kate.

Although I think any party is wise to open up voting for the leadership to its membership, the idea of opening up voting to anyone who swears they support the party is an open invitation to the opposition to involve itself and skew the result.

I expect as this drama unfolds it will generate much media attention and in politics the old saw is "Bad press is better than no press."