Notes from the Underground says:
The principle talking-points this morning seemed to center on a couple of ideas. One was that MMP would mean that the "backroom" types of political parties would control the list of candidates. Anyone who knows anything about contemporary Canadian politics knows that a candidate favoured in the backroom can find a nice safe seat in which to run. Riding associations themselves are highly susceptible to being taken over by all manner of special interest groups and/or lackeys for a particular candidate.
Northern BC Dipper adds:
How are candidates selected in SMP? They are - in the best case scenario - elected in nomination races that are selected exclusively by local party members - not the public at large. As for the nomination candidates in the first place? They can only run for the nomination if approved by the political party in the first place.
Of course, sometimes SMP candidates are not even selected by nomination races, but are appointed by the central party apparatus itself.
In short, the only difference in the selection of candidates between SMP and MMP is, really, the geographical distribution of the party members selecting them (local vs. central).
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