Bonser Method

The Green Party of Canada uses the Bonser Method, a colour-coded voting process, to prioritize motions submitted in advance to a National Convention. In this process voters chooses Red, Yellow or Green for each motion. Red means "I understand this motion and am opposed to it", Green means "I understand this motion and am in favour of it", and, Yellow means either "I wish to learn more about this motion" or "I do not like this motion's present wording, but I think the concept has merit".

In a Bonser Method vote the proportion of green votes required to adopt a motion and the proportion of red votes required to reject a motion is more than 60% of votes cast.

That threshold is applied to the results of the Bonser Ballot and will determine which motions are recommended to be adopted, rejected, or sent to workshop. In accordance with the Bonser Method threshold, motions voted “green” will be recommended to be adopted without further discussion and motions voted “red” will be recommended to be defeated without further discussion. All other motions are “yellow” and thus go to workshop groups for further debate and possible amendment, and then return to a plenary session for a vote to either accept or reject the motion. The motions with the highest percentage of “yellow” votes will take priority in the workshops.