Download the Report here.

In the spring of 2006 Tom Axworthy was tasked by the Liberal Party to set up a Renewal Commission that would brainstorm policy ideas to help renew the party’s platform. Let us, for now, put aside the numerous problems inherent in this process (I promise to write about that soon) and instead focus on the output of this commission.

In the late summer of 2006 the Party began to publish some of the reports on its website here. However, while the link remains active only a handful of the reports commissioned and completed were ever released. Moreover, as some of you have observered, the “renewal” link has disappeared from the Liberal Party webpage.

The authors of the Aboriginal Report (of which I was the only non-aboriginal) have jointly decided to put forward our ideas independently. So please click here to find our report. Please note that this report is not an official Liberal Party report and is not Liberal Party policy. It is merely the effort of several young progressives to reframe the debate and provide interesting ideas in an effort to move this important issue forward. Please also feel free to post your concerns, critiques, ideas, thoughts, praise… anything.

We continue to believe in renewal and the ideal that healthy political parties encourage and promote healthy debate – particularly on the most pressing policy issues facing our country. If other renewal commission heads are out there and would like to post their reports (as independent pieces – not official Liberal Renewal Commission Reports) I’m happy to do so. I know that the Environmental Report, which was also never released, is available here. Let’s let a thousand flowers bloom.

19/03/2007: Some of you may have noticed this piece in the Toronto Star that talks about the Aboriginal Report. Clearly copies made it into circulation before it got posted on this site.

[tags]liberal party of canada, aboriginal, public policy [/tags]