Do Conventions Matter?: Choosing National Party Leaders in Canada

496 Pages·1996·25.084 MB·English

by  John C. Courtney

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Choosing National Party Leaders in Canada
National leadership conventions in Canada attract widespread public
interest but, with growing support for direct democracy and universal
voting, may soon become a thing of the past. In Do Conventions Matter?
John Courtney, a leading authority in the field, explores the party lead-
ership selection process in an age of television-dominated politics and
assesses its uncertain future.
Do Conventions Master? provides a complete overview of national party
conventions in Canada. Courtney describes national party conventions
from 1919 to 1993, including the selection of Stanfield, Trudeau, Broad-
bent, Clark, Mulroney, Turner, McLaughlin, Chretien, Campbell, and
Manning. He compares leadership selection practices in Canada with
those in the United States, Britain, and Australia, and shows that Cana-
dian conventions remain a distinctive means of choosing party leaders.
Focusing on modern developments in the convention process,
Courtney highlights changes in representation over the last thirty years,
addresses criticisms about costs and delegate selection practices, and
examines the role of the media. He concludes with an examination of
the future of conventions in the context of Canadian democracy, given
skyrocketing costs, the movement to reform political parties, and the
push towards a universal membership vote. He argues convincingly that
the objectives of greater representation and greater democracy explain
both the emergence of our tradition of conventions to choose the lead-
ers of federal parties and its possible demise in the near future.
JOHN c. COURTNEY is professor of political studies, University of
Saskatchewan.
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Do Conventions Matter?
Choosing National Party Leaders
in Canada
JOHN C. COURTNEY
McGill-Queen's University Press
Montreal & Kingston • London • Buffalo
McGill-Queen's University Press 1995
ISBN 0-7735-1357-4 (cloth)
ISBN 0-7735-1358-2 (paper)
Legal deposit fourth quarter 1995
Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian
Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and with support
from the University of Saskatchewan Publication Fund.
McGill-Queen's University Press is grateful to the Canada Council for
support of its publishing program.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Courtney, John C.
Do conventions matter?: choosing national party leaders in Canada
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7735-1357-4 (bound) -
ISBN 0-7735-1358-2 (pbk.)
1. Political conventions - Canada. 2. Political conventions - Canada -
History. 3. Prime ministers - Canada - Selection and appointment.
4. Prime ministers - Canada - Selection and appointment - History. I.
Title.
JL 196.c68 1995 325-5'6'o971 095-900650-8
This book was typeset by Typo Litho Composition Inc.
in 10/12 Baskerville.
To my parents and to Helen
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Contents
Preface ix
Diagrams, Tables, and Appendices xiii
1 Introduction 3
2 Two Generations of Leadership Conventions 8
3 A Party's Backstop: Leadership Review 31
4 Mega-Bucks for Mega-Conventions 54
5 "Mediated" Conventions: From Print to Tube 78
6 Three Conventions in Four Years 103
7 Who's There? Representative Conventions 127
8 The Demographics of Leadership 159
9 From Announcement Day to Acceptance Day: The Net
Worth of Networks 185
10 Who Wins? Convention Coalitions 212
11 Mail Order Leadership: One Member, One Vote 233
12 Federal Leadership Selection Reforms: The Wave of the
Future? 254
13 Do Conventions Matter? Parties, Conventions and
Canadian Democracy 274
viii Contents
Tables 295
Appendices 363
Notes 375
Bibliography 451
Index 467
Diagrams, Tables, and
Appendices
DIAGRAMS
1-1 Growth in Number of Participants in Leadership
Selection 6
4-1 Organization Chart, 1976 Progressive Conservative
Leadership Convention 57
4-2 Organization Chart, 1984 Liberal Leadership
Convention 58
8-1 Elected Public Offices Held by Party Leaders at Time of
Selection 179
9-1 Network Model 187
9-2 Leadership Campaign and Convention Organisation
Chart 208
TABLES
2-1 Liberal Convention, 5-7 Aug. 1919, Ottawa 297
2-2 Liberal Convention, 5-7 Aug. 1948, Ottawa 297
2-3 Liberal Convention, 14-16 Jan. 1958, Ottawa 298
2-4 Liberal-Conservative Convention, 1-12 Oct. 1927,
Winnipeg 298