Buzz = persona non grata says New Despotic Party

This should be an utter embarrassment to any Ontario Dipper. Of course, it isn't - because the provincial council endorsed the expulsion "overwhelmingly."

I don't have any particularly strong feelings towards Mr. Hargrove. Nor would I be this indignant about a single and isolated act of of vindictiveness, if that's what this was. It would be absurd to attribute that to a single party. Lord knows my own party has dealt vindiction liberally (See Sheila Copps - although, no one considered for one instant that Sheila's membership was at risk).

But this is not a single, isolated act. It is demonstrative of a serious illnesses that pervades the NDP - something that has driven like-minded people away for a decade. The party purports to fight for democratic renewal, etc... In fairness, it does promote one notion of party democracy - a deeply flawed, elite-driven notion. Theirs is a model that begins and ends with Canadians selecting from three pure options.

No party executes discipline with such brutal efficiency. None punishes deviance with such single-minded assurance.

I've qualified myself here before - party discipline does serve a purpose. Without, the process would be distorted.

But when the membership must tremble before the judicious gaze of Hampton the Philosopher King, lest he obliterate their careers with a single stroke of his lightning-issuing God-gavel - then haven't we gone just a little wrong?

And what was Hargrove's crime? Advocating strategic voting!?! If this isn't a desparate abandonment of tolerance for the sake of self-preservation, then I don't know what is. Pathetic.

[The pun-thing in my title is quite lame. Sorry.]