Leadership Selection in Canada, 1967-2006: Development, Consequences and Comparative Insights

Leadership Selection in Canada, 1967-2006: Development, Consequences and Comparative Insights

The selection methods of party leaders in Canada have gone through a gradual shift during the last 30 years. Like parties in several other democracies (United Kingdom, Japan, Israel), the major Canadian parties have changed their internal distribution of power to give their members a more significant role in candidate selection and leadership selection. Among the reasons for this reform was the desire to reduce the oligarchic tendencies of parties by creating a participatory revolution and by providing the rank-and-file members a chance to make a difference. This study maps the various methods used by Canadian parties for selecting their leaders and asks what the positive and negative consequences of the opening of the selection process are. The first section addresses the importance of leadership selection. The second section outlines the types of methods used by parties worldwide for selecting their leaders. I then turn to describe the development of leadership selection methods in Canada, from the 1960s until 2006. The fourth and main section of the paper analyzes the consequences of the democratization, by looking at three distinct aspects: competitiveness, participation and candidates. The analysis focus on 24 leadership selection cases in Canada, but also uses comparative data from party leadership selection in other parliamentary democracies.