A failed approach

James Wood's article on the latest in the Lingenfelter membership controversy focuses mostly on the effect on the Flying Dust and Waterhen Lake First Nations. And it's undoubtedly a shame that the First Nations are receiving bad publicity through absolutely no fault of their own - not to mention that band members who might have wanted to participate have been cut out of the race due to the failings of the Lingenfelter campaign.

But what's perhaps more interesting in piecing together what happened is the timeline surrounding the memberships:

Norman said the band council met with Lingenfelter and a campaign volunteer in early April and was impressed with the leadership candidate's platform and his willingness to listen to their opinions.

He said the council took membership applications from Lingenfelter and said they would be taken around to people who had been NDP supporters, as has been the case in the past in order to foster political involvement among the First Nation's members.

However, in this case they were not distributed because of a lack of time, said Norman.

The campaign volunteer then returned and approached the First Nation's membership clerk about getting names so the campaign could approach people in the community about party memberships, said Norman.

Allowed to see the list, the Lingenfelter volunteer took down many names.

Norman said the worker then tried to contact him but the two failed to connect because of the chief's schedule.

The next time they spoke, the campaign worker told an apologetic Norman everything had been taken care of.

While the council had expected the campaign would canvass the community, Lingenfelter said Monday the worker had simply signed up individuals on the band list without speaking to them.

So what can we take from that timeline - provided by a party which is now expressing its frustration with the Lingenfelter campaign? First, it's worth noting that the incident would seem to be a one-off event based on a specific set of interactions between the Lingenfelter campaign and the two First Nations, rather than a matter of premeditation on either side.

Second, the timeline looks to have been an extremely short one. I've raised before the question of whether one person would likely have filled out over a thousand membership forms without assistance. And it seems all the less likely when by all indications the volunteer only started filling out forms after two April meetings (and subsequent efforts to talk to Norman).

Finally, it looks like the Lingenfelter volunteer was less than accurate in telling Norman what would be done with the membership lists. And that looks to be perhaps the most damaging element of the incident for the NDP going forward.

After all, it's a must for any political party (particularly a citizen- and grassroots-driven one like the NDP) to work with other groups in establishing and working toward common interests. And that necessarily requires a substantial degree of mutual trust.

Which makes it a serious problem that Lingenfelter's volunteer - being somebody holding a prominent enough position to accompany Lingenfelter alone on the first visit - apparently violated that trust by using the membership list to actually sign people up without their consent rather than merely to canvas them. And it would figure to be much harder for the NDP as a whole to build connections going into the 2011 election if Lingenfelter emerges victorious in the leadership race while leaving any room for doubt that he considers that type of breach to be beyond the pale.