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G21-B001 Members to Elect Deputy Leaders and Shadow Cabinet

Official proposal

05/06/2021 16:20

Submitter Name

Dianne Varga

This proposal was discussed in the workshop during Phase 2 of the VGM. However, there was not enough time for this proposal to be voted on in plenary by the members during Phase 2. Therefore, this proposal will not be included in the ratification vote.

Proposal

To replace Bylaws 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 with the following text:

Party Members shall elect members to Cabinet or Shadow Cabinet.
Party Members shall elect two Deputy Leaders.
Party Members may replace members of the Cabinet, Shadow Cabinet, or Deputy Leaders, subject to appeal.

Objective

To empower Party Members:

(i) to elect members to the Cabinet or Shadow Cabinet,

(ii) to elect Deputy Leaders, and

(iii) to remove members of the Cabinet, Shadow Cabinet, or Deputy Leaders.

Benefit

The changes will:

(i) strengthen participatory democracy by empowering Party Members to decide who will represent them,

(ii) underscore the role participatory democracy plays in providing the basis of unity for the Global Green Movement, and

(iii) reinforce the Party’s constitutional purpose of advancing its values and basis of unity.

Supporting Comments from Submitter

Participatory democracy is primarily concerned with citizens being afforded an opportunity to participate in decision-making on important matters that affect their lives. An example of a Green party that has democratic processes more fortified than ours in Canada is Die Grünen of Germany. Die Grünen’s Public Relations Department has said that the two co-chairs and two deputy chairs of the party executive are elected by the 800+ delegates of the party congress, while the two co-chairs and five deputy chairs of the parliamentary group are elected by the members of the parliamentary group itself. Almost all MPs (49 out of 67) have a role as spokesperson for a specific field of policy, and these positions are filled through negotiation and agreement among the MPs and the leadership of the parliamentary group.

The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand also has democratic processes stronger than our own. Their Correspondence Officer has said the executive structure includes two co-leaders and no deputies; the co-leaders are appointed at the annual general meeting by delegates of the representative branches across the country. Candidates for MP positions are themselves selected and ranked by the party membership, and voted upon in the country’s general election. Apart from this concrete evidence of the use of electoral processes and negotiation to determine executive and parliamentary representation, it is self-evident that if the Green Party of Canada empowered its grassroots Party Members to decide through electoral processes who will represent them as Deputy Leaders and Shadow Cabinet members, our participatory democracy would be stronger – stronger than it is now, stronger than the version seen in Germany, and as strong as the version seen in New Zealand.