2010 or not 2010

Crossposted at http://ReportonGreens.blogspot.com

-----------------------------------------------------

The big question facing the Green Party’s Federal Council is whether a leadership race should be held in 2010 or not. There is a lot at stake on both sides of the debate.

The argument for 2010
It’s a pretty short argument. It is required by the GPC Constitution (Bylaw 2.1.4.5) however that does cause a secondary question of whether it should be held in conjunction with the 2010 BGM being held in Toronto or be a stand-alone event in December. Of course, a third option would be to delay the BGM to December and hold them in conjunction then.

The argument against 2010
The problem lies in our current minority government in Ottawa. We could be in an election pretty much anytime in 2010 after the Olympics. The argument for delaying a Leadership Race is that the optics of holding either right after or right before an election aren’t great. In addition, is it fair to expect the current leader to campaign for her position while campaigning to become a Member of Parliament?

The party has made a serious investment into the Elizabeth May campaign to win Saanich-Gulf Islands and will continue to make this investment (in dollars and volunteer hours) into this riding into 2010. The outcome of a leadership race in 2010 would have implications on this investment.

The questions that stem from this argument are:
“Will Elizabeth May run for Leader again”
“If Elizabeth won’t run again, should the party be investing so heavily into SGI?”
“If Elizabeth does run and loses, should the party continue investing into SGI?”

My 2 cents
I prefer an August 2010 race for a few reasons:

1) There is no reason to violate the Constitution…. ever! It is the laws of how the party is supposed to be run as defined by the membership. If you disagree with it, then put in a constitutional amendment and we’ll re-evaluate the situation in 2011.

2) It is the simpler route. No “what if there is a spring election” or “what if there is a fall election” or “what if Elizabeth doesn’t run” or “what if Elizabeth doesn’t win”. Zero what if’s. The job being a Federal Councilor is complicated enough, no need to make it moreso.

3) It provides flexibility to the Federal Council to move the date from August to December without violating the Constitution if there is a late spring or even summer general election. However, the inverse creates a serious problem for the Council. If they initially set a December leadership race and we have a fall general election, the Council would either have to choose to run both elections simultaneously (which would be a media and elections reporting nightmare) OR delay the leadership race to 2011 (which I’ve already pointed out is unacceptable in #1).

4) The Leader of the Green Party isn’t supposed to hold the same relevance as Leader in some of the other political parties. If the role is that of “Official Spokesperson” and just one vote on Federal Council, then it should hold the same weight as those other roles. Are we delaying all 2010 Federal Council races until after the next general election too??? If we are going to differentiate the role of Leader, then let’s ensure that our Constitution and messaging also reflect this.

5) The party has zero influence on when the next election will happen. We cannot do anything to force a vote of non-confidence and topple the government. Therefore, we should govern ourselves accordingly and stay on schedule for a 2010 leadership race.

Moving Forward
At some point, the party is going to have to re-evaluate this entire 4 year term item in the Constitution. If/when the party starts electing MPs, forming Opposition and eventually forming Government, it is going to cause more problems. Imagine a sitting Green Prime Minister having to step down as Leader of the Party and thus the country because of a mandated leadership race. This is where we may have to take the lead of our competition and set up a mandatory leadership reviews instead of a mandatory leadership races.

That’s my two cents. What’s yours? Have I missed any key arguments or questions? Better yet, also tell your Federal Councilors and Provincial Reps your opinion.