Supporters in the Liberal leadership race

Noted from the media briefing by National Director Ian McKay yesterday on the leadership race, this tweet from @punditsguide:

#lpc has allowed #lpcldr to talk to own supporters b4 passing along to the party. But cut-off is March 3. They'll want to make the deadline!
— Pundits' Guide (@punditsguide) January 16, 2013

Posting it for the first sentence there on a point picked up on by Alice in the briefing.

The supporter category of the party was created at the January 2012 party biennial convention as follows:

Qualification as a supporter

To be eligible to become a supporter of the Party, a person must be either a member of the Party or a person who:
(a) is at least 18 years of age;
(b) supports the purposes of the Party;
(c) is qualified as an elector who may vote in accordance with part 11 of the Canada Elections Act or ordinarily lives in Canada;12 and
(d) is not a member of any other federal political party in Canada.

Note the language "to become a supporter of the Party" and "(b) supports the purposes of the party." Thus, all the sign-ups going on during leadership of supporters are technically supporters of the party. In an informal sense, however, people may be signing up in order to support a particular candidate on the ballot. But they are also affirming that they support the party and constitutionally, it's the party that therefore has all the infrastructure set up to register and process the supporters.

Only the party can register a supporter, not a ldrship candidate, McKay clarifies to Manon Cornellier. #LPCldr
— Pundits' Guide (@punditsguide) January 16, 2013

See also this tweet which referenced two types of supporters:

#lpc Exec Dir Ian McKay is arguing supporter issue makes this exciting. He says their "universe" is 100K & add to that the cands supporters
— Pundits' Guide (@punditsguide) January 16, 2013

What's interesting about Alice's first tweet above is the notion that leadership candidates are signing up party supporters and that information is being kept in house, among the candidates, until March 3. Which, given the constitution and the preferential ballot regime of the contest, is an interesting process.

Alice has more on this today.