Norquay: Mea Culpa: The Conservative Leadership Process That I Helped Invent Needs an Overhaul - Policy Magazine
be a contributing factor. Spectacle nostalgia won’t bring back the meatspace convention with its epic betrayals and riveting floor fights, but the current, one-member-one-vote selection process has serious flaws. Veteran Tory strategist and Earnscliffe Principal Geoff Norquay, who helped create the current system, has some suggestions.y September 10, the Conservative Party of Canada will have spent a total of 22 months of the past five years searching for a new leader.
While leadership contests used to be managed in a completely different manner, through the delegated convention, it wasn’t always that way. For the first 50 years of Canada’s history, the leadership selection process was an informal and elite one, with both Conservative and Liberal leaders chosen through consultation involving the retiring leader, caucus members, senior party notables and fundraisers, and the governor general.
On the face of it, direct election of the leader appeared to make a lot of sense. It was more inclusively democratic than the delegated convention, and it carried the added advantage of bringing “new blood” into the party through membership recruitment. When teamed with the 100 points per constituency system, which prevented constituencies with 2,000 members from overwhelming those with 200 members, it encouraged leadership candidates to recruit in the areas where the party was weakest.
John Crosbie’s team brought a massive, tricked-out blimp to the 1983 convention that elected Brian Mulroney Progressive Conservative leader. What could possibly go wrong? Well, the blimp became uncontrollable and went rogue, cruising among the 5,000 delegates, crashing into press boxes and TV cameras. It was amazing television.
It’s a good bet that the delegated convention is not coming back: reforms that increase participation and broaden democracy are rarely called back. But how could the Conservative model be improved, beginning with how could it be shortened? More than 200,000 individual members of the party, who have been paid up members for three months, could then choose the winner by postal ballot, with the outcome announced on September 5.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Politics Briefing: Patrick Brown says Brampton mayoralty has his ‘entire focus’Disqualified federal Conservative leadership candidate announces re-election campaign in Toronto-area city
Read more »
Brown says Conservative Party would 'manufacture anything' to oust him from leadership campaign | CBC NewsPatrick Brown says the Conservative Party did not want a competitive leadership election and would have made up any story necessary to disqualify him from the race to succeed Erin O'Toole.
Read more »
Brown disqualification presents 'opportunity' for remaining Conservative leadership candidates: analystThe recent disqualification of Patrick Brown has forced a recalibration of the Conservative Party leadership race, as other campaigns seek votes from Brown’s supporters.
Read more »
How Patrick Brown's disqualification recalibrates the Conservative leadership raceThe recent disqualification of Patrick Brown has forced a recalibration of the Conservative Party leadership race, as other campaigns seek votes from Brown’s supporters.
Read more »
Patrick Brown's disqualification may shake up Conservative leadership vote: analystThe recent disqualification of Patrick Brown has forced a recalibration of the Conservative Party leadership race, as other campaigns seek votes from Brown's supporters, according to political analyst Lori Turnbull.
Read more »
Remaining candidates in Britain’s Conservative leadership race seek to distance themselves from JohnsonAs Boris Johnson largely disappears from the scene, the remaining candidates in the race to replace him as Britain’s Conservative leader sling dirt at one another
Read more »