Last year, Katie Francis of Oklahoma City set a sales record for Girl Scout cookies, selling 18,107 boxes in a seven-week period. How did she do it? She told her local newspaper that success had three simple ingredients: time, commitment and asking everyone she met to buy, buy, buy.

Her advice is relevant to anyone hoping to secure a nomination as a federal Liberal candidate. How do you win? The party says it wants local members to decide. Which means that, absent outside party intervention, the winner will be whoever is willing to put in the most time and commitment, spending months asking everyone he or she meets to buy a party membership. They cost $10 – the price of two boxes of what are known in Canada as Girl Guide cookies.

Which brings us to MP Eve Adams. The Liberal Party of Canada is tying itself into private and public knots over her floor-crossing from the Conservatives. The Tories had already blocked her from running for them, citing irregularities in her pursuit of their party's nomination. So this week she jumped ship.

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Considering that Ms. Adams had basically been shut out of her original party, there's nothing all that surprising in her decision. But on the receiving end of the trade, a lot of Liberals are wondering why Justin Trudeau so personally and publicly welcomed her into the fold – holding a joint press conference, covering her in treacly praise, lending her his halo, and sending a message that she is his candidate. A day later, she announced she was seeking the Liberal nomination in Eglinton-Lawrence, and not long after she had one of the best-connected Liberals – Tom Allison, former campaign manager for Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Toronto Mayor John Tory – as her campaign manager.

Mike Colle, the MPP who represents the Liberal riding at the provincial level called the idea of Ms. Adams being dropped into his neighbourhood "preposterous" and said it would happen "over my dead body."

There's an easy way for Mr. Trudeau and his team to smooth things with their own party: Let the nomination in Eglinton-Lawrence run its course. Stand aside, and let whoever sells the most cookies, win. At this late date, and facing a local Liberal with a big head start, even Katie Francis would be challenged to win the cookie-sales sweepstakes.

In the Machiavellian sport that is politics, that should suit the Liberal brain trust just fine. They could get their floor-crossing, without being saddled with the floor-crosser. It would be like having your cookie and eating it too.