Last year, when New Democrats elected Thomas Mulcair their leader, every single paid-up member of the party was allowed to vote and every single vote counted. It was a one-member, one-vote system.
There was, at various points in the race, concern from the Montreal-based Mulcair camp that, since Quebec had never had — and still does not have — a provincial wing of the party and since members of provincial NDP parties in BC, Manitoba, Ontario and elsewhere are automatically voting members of the federal party, that the one-member, one-vote system would be a handicap to candidates, like Mulcair, from Quebec.
The one-member, one-vote system in the NDP leadership race turned out, after all, not to be a handicap for Mulcair because he won.
Still, though the province of Quebec has about 23 per cent of the Canadian population, just 9.6 per cent of the eligible voters in that NDP contest were from Quebec. By contrast, more than 30 per cent of the voters were from B.C., even though B.C. has only 13 per cent of the population. Those who were nervous about one-member, one-vote were worried that regional imbalances would either given an advantage to one candidate or another.
The Liberal Party of Canada is in the midst of its own leadership race and voting is underway this week. Again, Quebec is under-represented so far as voters go if one compares Quebec votersto the overall population. Just 11.6 per cent of the Liberal leadership voters are from Quebec.
This time next week, the leaders of the two leading opposition parties could be from Quebec and yet, judged on their participation in each party’s leadership contest, Quebecer’s seem not to care that much. That’s the starting point for my discussion with Le Journal de Montréal blogger Lisa Ravary, above.
Continue reading Quebec may not care but it hits above its weight for the Liberal leadership
