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G21-C009 Dual Leadership for Better Representation

Official proposal

05/06/2021 17:16

Submitter Name

Vivian Unger

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

That the Green Party of Canada membership elect two leaders in the same election, using a proportional electoral system such as PR-STV.

Objective

To empower party members to elect more than one leader.

Benefit

When two or more leaders are elected simultaneously, the end result will be closer to true proportional representation. Multiple leaders will represent a wider range of the membership, which will lead to greater satisfaction with leadership election results and prevent or reduce post-election member loss.

Supporting Comments from Submitter

Making More Votes Count. In the GPC 2020 leadership race, 50.63% of voting members elected the leader, Annamie Paul. That is barely more than half. It's better than a first-past-the-post election, but we can do better still. If this contest had been held under a system of elected dual leadership using PR-STV, the vote quota would have been determined by the Droop formula: ( total votes / ( positions + 1 ) ) + 1, ( 23,877 / (2 + 1) ) + 1 = ( 23,877 / 3 ) + 1 = 7959 + 1 = 7,960. Annamie Paul passed this quota in Round 7, when she won 8,862 votes. That is when she would have become the first leader. The extra 902 votes would be distributed among the remaining candidates. Most or all of those votes would have probably gone to Courtney Howard, but even if she'd received all of it, that would have given her just 5,824 + 902 = 6,726, well behind Dimitri Lascaris's count of 8,340. Lascaris would have become the second leader.

These combined leaders would have been selected by 17,202 voters, or 72% of voting members. 72% representation is a considerable improvement upon the 50.6% representation we have now. Furthermore, the Eco-Socialist faction of the Party would be represented in the leadership and the Party as a whole would be more unified.

Dual Leadership Is Effective Leadership. Dual leadership is effective because it takes advantage of different viewpoints and areas of expertise. In the following article, the co-leaders of the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery discuss why dual leadership works well for them.

https://www.aam-us.org/2019/02/22/when-dual-leadership-works-113/

Other Green Parties Have Dual Leadership. Co-leadership already exists in other Green Parties. The Green Party of England and Wales elected the team of Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley as its leaders. Note: their system is different from this proposal as rather than being elected separately, Berry and Bartley ran on a double ticket.

Some members expressed concerns that co-leadership would lead to conflict and power struggles. This concern can be addressed by making the leaders unequal. The leader who wins their position first (ie. Paul) would serve as the primary leader, while the second to be elected (ie. Lascaris) would serve as a secondary leader. That way, in cases where consensus cannot be found, the opinion of the primary leader would hold sway.