womov, redux

I know I'm hopping on the bandwagon late, but it's been a busy week with exams, end-of-the-season hockey (along with some tense nail-biting moments for my beloved habitants) and such. Anyway, now I feel like a schmuck (moreso!) for my previous postings on the womov/YLC amendment. It seems when you try to straddle the fence, you end up getting a picket wedged firmly between the buttocks.

First, I should have made it abundantly clear that I'm not attending the biennial in Vancouver, so what I say here as next to no value whatsoever on influencing peoples' decisions. I just like to see my name pop up more frequently when I google myself.

So, my original thoughts were essentially opposed to the amendment, and to the belief that should the amendment not pass, that Young Liberals should not pass the entire deal. That drew quite a bit of flak, both in the comments here and in emails, not to mention the blogosphere going bat-shit insane over the whole deal. But that's cool, because we need to have these discussions.

Now, it appears that the rules of order for the constitutional amendments have been modified, so that, at convention, the womov amendment will be voted on first, followed by the sub-amendments. This, of course, flies in the face of all logic, established procedure, and reason.

From what I can see, it's forcing the YLCs hand in all of this- do we support OMOV, knowing that the sub-amendment may not pass? Or do we vote against OMOV as a protest against the ludicrous procedure for voting on amendments?

This time, I just don't know. Good thing is, I don't have to know- I'm not at the convention. I only have a few friends going to the convention, all of which with stronger convictions on this subject than I. My sole firm resolution, then, is to oppose the rules of order here. You can't vote on an amendment when you don't know what the final damned product is going to be. That's why committee/report stage comes before Third Reading in the House, and that's why it's organized such in every single reputable rules of order system in existence. I don't know what the national executive had in mind when they enacted this change, but it just smacks of interference and heavy-handedness.

Not that I don't mind a bit of controversy, but if you were looking for a sure-fire way to piss off 30% of the convention, mission accomplished.