NITTY GRITTY

Someone asked if I knew  how a riding organisation functions.
Except for snippets from the past, I am not up to date.
Time was , the riding organisation was the flame that kept the fire alive  between elections.
The people who  kept the group to-gether and sussed out a candidate to carry the party banner. Often, depending on party  fortunes, one of their number. If it's a winnable riding it's not like that any more.  

For  leadership conferences, they choose delegates. Sometimes they are told how to vote. But it's a secret ballot.
. 
At the week-end, I  heard  Newmarket-Aurora  Liberal executive is about twenty strong.They have a web site.
Whitehouse, Ballard, Susan Walmer, Catherine Marshall and a couple of others, familiar to all of us are part of it.  . 
I did not know that. It explains a  few things.
I never understood why Councillor Ballard would want to carry another person's baggage.
It still doesn't make sense.  But  party connection  offers an explanation of sorts.
Voters' lists. party organisation .All that stuff. 
It makes the last election results that much more impressive.
Attending a leadership conference can incur  considerable expense. 
Depending on how flush  the riding's coffers,  delegates chosen , might just be those  who can afford to pay their own way.