Party Democracy

A blog about the internal democracy of political parties in Canada: candidate nominations, policy development, and so on.

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“Emperor Max” is No Solution

In a National Post column published August 31, Maxime Bernier lays out his reasons for leaving the Conservatives and forming his own federal party. Urging Canadians to learn about public choice theory, Bernier claims that Canadian politics has been hijacked by interest groups, whose lobbying has “corrupted” both the Conservative and Liberal parties. Bernier’s stated goal…

Green Party Vote Result Mirrors Partisan Ballot Comments

In an earlier post, I reported that the Green Party of Canada had taken the unusual measure of adding partisan commentary directly on its ballots for this year’s pre-convention voting. The pre-convention vote has now been tallied, and the results closely match the partisan ballot comments. How should this be interpreted? The vote results…

Signs Your Organization is Authoritarian (Part 1: Deflecting Criticism)

Authoritarianism isn’t always obvious. Sometimes, it infects an organization slowly, progressing for years before members realize (or admit) what has happened. If you’ve ever had a gut feeling that something just isn’t right with your organization’s leadership, think back to the last time a member criticized the organization. How did the leaders respond? Did…

Why ballot box commentary cannot work

This is a follow-up to my report yesterday that the Green Party of Canada has added partisan messaging to their ballots for this year’s convention. It’s not necessary to read that post first, but it provides a real-world example of this phenomenon, if you would like to see one. For anybody who has even briefly…

Green Party of Canada Includes Partisan Comments on Internal Ballots

(Update August 22: For a follow-up comparing the outcome of the vote to the ballot comments, see Green Party vote result mirrors partisan ballot comments.) (Update June 21: For a follow-up post explaining in detail the problems with ballot-box commentary, see Why ballot box commentary cannot work.) Today I received some surprising news from friends of…