LILLEY: Liberale Regeln bedeuten, dass Nicht-Staatsbürger den nächsten Premierminister wählen könnten – Vergessen Sie ausländische Einmischung, die eigenen Regeln der Liberalen Partei könnten vorsehen, dass ausländische Teenager bei der Wahl unseres nächsten Premierministers mithelfen

https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/liberal-rules-mean-non-citizens-could-be-choosing-next-pm

29 Comments

  1. FancyNewMe on

    In Brief:

    * The Liberal Party allows people who are [non-citizens of Canada and who are as young as 14](https://liberal.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/292/2020/09/by-law-4-2.pdf) to vote in leadership races.
    * It means a 14-year-old from Wuhan in China, a 15-year-old from Belgorod in Russia or a 17-year-old student from Gandhinagar in India could have as much impact as voters from Etobicoke, Calgary or Ottawa in choosing our next prime minister.
    * To be a registered Liberal and to be eligible to vote in either a nomination race or a leadership race, the rules are fairly lax. Party documents show that you just need to be “at least fourteen (14) years of age” they ask that you “support the purposes of the Party” and that you “ordinarily live in Canada.”
    * Nothing requires you to be a citizen or eligible to vote in a general election but … you can help select the next prime minister of Canada.

  2. PunkinBrewster on

    He could have just stepped down and had Freeland take over, giving Canada its first female Liberal Prime Minister, but he either hates women, or just hates that woman. A true feminist…

  3. logopolis01 on

    It should be noted that the Conservative party also allows non-citizens of Canada to vote in nomination races.

  4. Valuable-Ad3975 on

    Of course pitch Canadians against immigrants, that’s what you do best – you’re opinions are total BS

  5. This-Question-1351 on

    What is wrong with this country? Allowing non-citizens to choose our leaders is truly unacceptable to those of us who have to live with the consequences.

  6. Constant_Curve on

    Strangely enough, only the NDP requires you to be a citizen.

    But this is honestly the #1 problem with Canadian democracy. Since we have unelected ministers and the PM, the party governance structures become very important. The party governance structures right now are stupidly unregulated and in pretty much every party, very flawed.

    We really need to step up and demand minimum standards for party constitutions. Almost all of the foreign election interference occurs at the party nomination level.

    Edit: Federal NDP constitution does not require you to be a citizen, I was mistaken, looking at provincial ones.

  7. Wow how honorable of Brian to care about Foreign interference. Let me just check how many articles he has written about Conservative Tampering, PP’s censure, or PP’s lack of security clearance as he seems to be very focused on integrity of elections….

  8. kidbanjack on

    Isn’t Brian Lilly married to one of Doug Ford’s aides? Both being bootlickers?

  9. squirrel9000 on

    The Liberals are not the first party about whom this concern has been raised. In fact, they’re not even the worst problem given they probably won’t win the election.

  10. son-of-hasdrubal on

    Wasn’t it the NDP who wanted to lower the voting age to like 15? Both these parties are out of their minds

  11. Why doesn’t Lilley care about PP being chosen in a leadership race that was actually influenced by foreign governments?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Conservative_Party_of_Canada_leadership_election#:~:text=In%20June%202024%2C%20National%20Security,governments%20of%20India%20and%20China.

    Oh right Lilley only criticizes Liberals and NDP and never PP, no matter what. Why is this guy always on r/canada?  He is not someone who wants to improve Canada because his partisan focus overrides any attempt to have consistent principles. 

  12. Thin_Spring_9269 on

    I doubt any food those foreigners will make any impact in their leadership race…
    This is really just another scare tactic

  13. MapleDesperado on

    Everyone seems to be missing the requirement to “ordinarily live in Canada” (which OP points out) – it helps to prevent interference of the kind most people seem to be suggesting.

    Whether permanent residents and whoever else get caught up by that definition (TFWs? International students?) should be selecting a party leader is a discussion worth having, but the fallback is going to be that it is a party issue – and voters can punish the party if they don’t like it.

    Personally, I’d restrict it to registered voters.

  14. AustralisBorealis64 on

    Fine. Then we can un-elect the Liberal Party of Canada from running the government and they can fix their issues.

  15. Canadastani on

    Conservatives allow Permanent Residents to buy memberships and vote in leadership elections. You know, non-citizens….

  16. So many people saying things that are not based on facts.

    The only parties that don’t require you to be at least a PR is the liberals and bloc.

  17. never_not_gaming on

    Jokes on them. You can be blamed for selecting a bad candidate if there are no good candidates. 

  18. Ok-Search4274 on

    We need to go back to delegated conventions and paid membership.

  19. No party has a rule that you need to be a citizen to vote. For example, in the recent CPC leadership election permanent residents were allowed to vote for Pollievre to be leader.

    Its also true that riding associations don’t require citizenship to vote for candidates.

    Its fair to be critical of this, but its hardly a Liberal only problem.

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