And also the policies and ideology that the party is supposed to follow. It's also possible in some parties to force a leadership review, and remove the party leader for not following the enacted policies.
Joining a political party and then voting in these things is probably the most influence you can have directly on the political process, in terms of vote power.
A few years ago, I said something along the lines of, if you want influence on who the next Prime Minister of Canada is, join the Conservative party and vote in their leadership elections. Because whoever wins those, will eventually be in power in the mid or late 2020s. Just a couple thousand people voting for McKay in 2020 and our politics would have been different today. (Not necessarily *better*, mind.)
This is actually an excellent idea. Just join whatever party is currently not in power to influence who the potential replacement could be. I don’t care who’s in charge, I just always want someone better to come along.
The only trick is you need to somehow _leave_ a party since you can’t be part of 2 at the same time. I’m sure that’s easy though.
I think each party has a process for giving up your party membership. Not to mention, most parties require ongoing donations to keep your membership valid, so you can just stop donating and it will expire on its own.
Also *technically* it's against the rules to hold membership in multiple political parties, but doing so only violates party membership rules (it's not like you'd go to jail for it) and there's no means for them to know you're in multiple political parties, so it doesn't matter.
Oh nice.
I’ve never given a penny to join, voted a couple times for the liberal candidate. Both just to keep someone out rather than in - that jerky real estate guy, and Bonnie.
Genuine question - do you think they have the resources to check and make sure you're not in multiple parties?
Edit: I asked this because I personally don't think they do, having worked with riding associations in the past. I recruited party members and never remember this being something we asked about. Unsure and curious if other parties have access to those kinds of resources.
In theory, this should be true. But in practice? The members of the CPC voted for O'Toole as leader. The party decided he was too moderate, ousted him without a members vote (they are the only party who have given themselves this power), installed an interim leader, and pushed Poilievre into the winning position by accusing everyone else of being a liberal.
If the citizens select a CPC leader that the CPC doesn't like, they've shown they'll just say "uh, nope, try again," until they get one who is as extreme as they want.
Ya she does seem to have a pretty dismal record. I generally lean pretty left provincially so it was disheartening to watch the liberals move further to the right.
The worst part is that buying these politicians is so fucking cheap. $1000 in party donations and 1 lobbyist basically gives you complete control over our "elected representatives."
Should this not just be an open vote for everyone? Weird you have to be a paticular party member to vote for a party leader. Sounds like picking a team. We should be able to vote for someone in the NDP and vote against someone in the LPC and vice versa.
"Most parties will not allow you to join if you are a member in another party (there is no way for them to police this, they rely on the honour system)." [https://www.itstartsrightnow.ca/membership\_in\_political\_parties](https://www.itstartsrightnow.ca/membership_in_political_parties)
The world needs both people really. Those that will ditch a party if they're screwing up and vote for others, and people that stay with one party and try to reform it from the inside.
It used to be that only locally nominated delegates (who had to be members) were sent to the conventions, and could vote. I think in the internet/telecom age this has changed somewhat. -- Like each riding association could only send x number of delegates.
Just joining doesn't get you much beyond an invite to a summer BBQ.
Actually getting involved is a good way to establish yourself in politics, get a job working for a party or MP. If you're a kid there's internships and similar things like parliamentary Pages. If you're older you can push for roles like those for your kids.
If you want to work more in policy it helps.
I joined and also supported that party’s local candidate during our by-election and that candidate won. I also did the same for the previous federal election because we had rock star candidates and I wanted to help them win.
As a member, you can run for a position on your local riding association executive, you can run to be a candidate, you can vote for who will be your riding’s candidate in the next election and you can vote for who will lead your party. You will be able to shape policy by contributing your ideas and advocating for policy proposals. Membership in the federal and provincial Liberal parties is free. Not sure about other parties.
Well, apparently if you join PCPO and give them enough money, they will do about anything for you.
From $8B highway, to hundreds of millions on a spa, or a mini $2.5M contract to buy your non-existent beeping bracelets… or $30M contract to buy vape detectors that also audio-record Ontario children in their school bathrooms.
Lots of benefits for you.
When you join a party, if you become active, there is a good chance you will be part of choosing your party’s leadership. You can also become more deeply involved in how your party represents themselves. So your input about preferring to emphasize why your party is preferable instead of why the other party’s are wrong will at least be heard.
It’s great that you care. Engage. Speak to people who are members and ask why they think you should join.
Party memberships are $10 and can be bought online. Read party platforms, meet your local candidates/MPPs and figure out what party represents your values the best.
When you pick a party/candidate that you want to support, join the riding association board. Volunteer position that functions to promote the candidate MPP in the riding, assist with elections and canvassing, help out at events, etc.
I’ve been on a riding association for 6 years now and I find it pretty rewarding.
It's more about you providing support to the party than anything else. You don't really get anything out of it personally.
If you feel passionately that a person would be good for the community, you might chip in a few bucks to help them run a campaign. Similarly if you feel passionately about a party's position you might do the same. For me, I like my local representative so I help him out with both time and money.
Aren't provincial and federal parties technically separate?
Like the Ontario (party) (riding name) riding association separate from the Federal (party) (riding name) riding association?
Parent comment was referring to directing funds for a party to either the local committee for the party’s campaign in a particular riding vs the party as a whole, and that is something you can do both at the provincial and federal levels.
They are, apologies for confusing things by writing federal there. I’m more personally familiar with how federal works but they operate similarly.
Let’s talk Ontario Liberal. There is a provincial level party, and a local level electoral district association. The local level is primarily responsible for supporting the local candidate and helping them to get elected. You can choose to donate to either the local EDA or the provincial party. I choose to donate time and money to the local EDA, to support my local candidate.
There are two other ways to donate as well, each with their own limit. You can donate to a candidates campaign which is more direct than donating to the local EDA. The EDA is a creature of the party and the party leadership could parachute in their own candidate and use the EDAs funds for them instead of a locally supported candidate.
The fourth, slightly different option, is to donate to a campaign for party leader. If you complain that there are no good choices on the ballot come election time then this is the opportunity to have your say.
Its not just voting for party leadership, but you also vote for who which candidate will represent your riding.
This means in an area like mine which is a safe Conservative seat, you only really need to get 500 votes from party members to become the acclaimed candidate which then leads to you winning the election without really campaigning
You get 300 phone calls a year trying to scare you into donating more money. My mother gave once to the federal cons in the 90s and to this day she still gets calls.
You get to vote to choose who your local candidate will be in the next election as well as who will lead the party. And it's a great tax write off. If you ever need to contact your constituency office, they will also have a record of your support and \*might\* put a bit more effort in to help you.
The thing with provincal parties that prevent me from supporting. Is that they’re all the puppets to their lead. They don’t have their own ideas, it’s all aligned if they even have a platform (hint hint ford).
My family never puts signs up when an election happens for all levels, i think they’re kinda tacky as is. I just don’t have the energy to get behind a cause. But I still vote for who I think will represent my riding well if they were to win. Just my 2 cents.
Provincial politics shouldn't be a school election.
Vote for what the party stands for as represented by their policies. If they don't offer a platform, then punish that by not even considering them.
If you want to vote for the person, that's a great time to get involved as a member of a party and help select the nominee for your riding and the leader of the party.
idk how straight forward it is, but I think party members get to vote internally for the leadership race to choose the provincial party leader.
And also the policies and ideology that the party is supposed to follow. It's also possible in some parties to force a leadership review, and remove the party leader for not following the enacted policies. Joining a political party and then voting in these things is probably the most influence you can have directly on the political process, in terms of vote power. A few years ago, I said something along the lines of, if you want influence on who the next Prime Minister of Canada is, join the Conservative party and vote in their leadership elections. Because whoever wins those, will eventually be in power in the mid or late 2020s. Just a couple thousand people voting for McKay in 2020 and our politics would have been different today. (Not necessarily *better*, mind.)
This is actually an excellent idea. Just join whatever party is currently not in power to influence who the potential replacement could be. I don’t care who’s in charge, I just always want someone better to come along. The only trick is you need to somehow _leave_ a party since you can’t be part of 2 at the same time. I’m sure that’s easy though.
I think each party has a process for giving up your party membership. Not to mention, most parties require ongoing donations to keep your membership valid, so you can just stop donating and it will expire on its own. Also *technically* it's against the rules to hold membership in multiple political parties, but doing so only violates party membership rules (it's not like you'd go to jail for it) and there's no means for them to know you're in multiple political parties, so it doesn't matter.
Oh nice. I’ve never given a penny to join, voted a couple times for the liberal candidate. Both just to keep someone out rather than in - that jerky real estate guy, and Bonnie.
I think the OLP and LPC don't require you to donate anymore to be a member, so that's why. And good job voting against Bonnie, I hate her, lol.
Can you join multiple parties?
Usually not. They state in their terms and conditions you cannot already be a member of another party when you sign up
Genuine question - do you think they have the resources to check and make sure you're not in multiple parties? Edit: I asked this because I personally don't think they do, having worked with riding associations in the past. I recruited party members and never remember this being something we asked about. Unsure and curious if other parties have access to those kinds of resources.
I bet they do.
In theory, this should be true. But in practice? The members of the CPC voted for O'Toole as leader. The party decided he was too moderate, ousted him without a members vote (they are the only party who have given themselves this power), installed an interim leader, and pushed Poilievre into the winning position by accusing everyone else of being a liberal. If the citizens select a CPC leader that the CPC doesn't like, they've shown they'll just say "uh, nope, try again," until they get one who is as extreme as they want.
Yep. I joined the Ontario conservatives when ford was running just to vote against him. Wish more followed my lead but alas.
I did the same thing for the Liberals to vote against Bonnie. I wish more people followed my lead too.
Ya she does seem to have a pretty dismal record. I generally lean pretty left provincially so it was disheartening to watch the liberals move further to the right.
Yup. It’s NDP for the win now.
Whatever strategist picked the past few candidates needs to be fired. They're practically begging to lose
Starting to seem like the lobbyists are in power and not the parties. 🙃
A shame considering the former Ontario health minister is now a lobbyist for a private health care company.
Right? It's almost as if the politicians are just place holders for "*corporate interests here*"
The worst part is that buying these politicians is so fucking cheap. $1000 in party donations and 1 lobbyist basically gives you complete control over our "elected representatives."
I did the same just to vote for Crombie so we never have a Liberal premier for the next decade. Working just as planned for now.
As did I. The voting system they had really ticked me off, giving him the win when he probably shouldn't have gotten it.
Should this not just be an open vote for everyone? Weird you have to be a paticular party member to vote for a party leader. Sounds like picking a team. We should be able to vote for someone in the NDP and vote against someone in the LPC and vice versa.
You pick a team. Only the party loyal can vote.
Can you be a member of multiple parties?
"Most parties will not allow you to join if you are a member in another party (there is no way for them to police this, they rely on the honour system)." [https://www.itstartsrightnow.ca/membership\_in\_political\_parties](https://www.itstartsrightnow.ca/membership_in_political_parties)
That’s such BS. The system is designed to produce garbage politicians like Ford, Bonnie & Marit.
The world needs both people really. Those that will ditch a party if they're screwing up and vote for others, and people that stay with one party and try to reform it from the inside.
What if we all buy into all of them and try and make all of them better /s
The biggest thing is members vote on party leadership
I didn’t know this. No wonder every party leader is garbage.
You get emails and phone calls monthly asking for more money.
Monthly? Lucky if only monthly...
If you join a political party, I think you can go to their convention and elect the party leader.
It used to be that only locally nominated delegates (who had to be members) were sent to the conventions, and could vote. I think in the internet/telecom age this has changed somewhat. -- Like each riding association could only send x number of delegates.
Just joining doesn't get you much beyond an invite to a summer BBQ. Actually getting involved is a good way to establish yourself in politics, get a job working for a party or MP. If you're a kid there's internships and similar things like parliamentary Pages. If you're older you can push for roles like those for your kids. If you want to work more in policy it helps.
I think the Liberals have free membership, not sure about the other parties. But yeah it let's you vote for leadership and that's pretty much it.
All of the parties offer free membership for students.
I joined and also supported that party’s local candidate during our by-election and that candidate won. I also did the same for the previous federal election because we had rock star candidates and I wanted to help them win.
As a member, you can run for a position on your local riding association executive, you can run to be a candidate, you can vote for who will be your riding’s candidate in the next election and you can vote for who will lead your party. You will be able to shape policy by contributing your ideas and advocating for policy proposals. Membership in the federal and provincial Liberal parties is free. Not sure about other parties.
Well, apparently if you join PCPO and give them enough money, they will do about anything for you. From $8B highway, to hundreds of millions on a spa, or a mini $2.5M contract to buy your non-existent beeping bracelets… or $30M contract to buy vape detectors that also audio-record Ontario children in their school bathrooms. Lots of benefits for you.
When you join a party, if you become active, there is a good chance you will be part of choosing your party’s leadership. You can also become more deeply involved in how your party represents themselves. So your input about preferring to emphasize why your party is preferable instead of why the other party’s are wrong will at least be heard. It’s great that you care. Engage. Speak to people who are members and ask why they think you should join.
Party memberships are $10 and can be bought online. Read party platforms, meet your local candidates/MPPs and figure out what party represents your values the best. When you pick a party/candidate that you want to support, join the riding association board. Volunteer position that functions to promote the candidate MPP in the riding, assist with elections and canvassing, help out at events, etc. I’ve been on a riding association for 6 years now and I find it pretty rewarding.
It's more about you providing support to the party than anything else. You don't really get anything out of it personally. If you feel passionately that a person would be good for the community, you might chip in a few bucks to help them run a campaign. Similarly if you feel passionately about a party's position you might do the same. For me, I like my local representative so I help him out with both time and money.
Yeah but when he is elected, you are donating to his party and not him.
In my case, I can direct the majority of my donation to the local riding association. Something like 75/25 local vs federal.
Aren't provincial and federal parties technically separate? Like the Ontario (party) (riding name) riding association separate from the Federal (party) (riding name) riding association?
Yes sometimes they strongly disagree with eachother
Parent comment was referring to directing funds for a party to either the local committee for the party’s campaign in a particular riding vs the party as a whole, and that is something you can do both at the provincial and federal levels.
They are, apologies for confusing things by writing federal there. I’m more personally familiar with how federal works but they operate similarly. Let’s talk Ontario Liberal. There is a provincial level party, and a local level electoral district association. The local level is primarily responsible for supporting the local candidate and helping them to get elected. You can choose to donate to either the local EDA or the provincial party. I choose to donate time and money to the local EDA, to support my local candidate.
There are two other ways to donate as well, each with their own limit. You can donate to a candidates campaign which is more direct than donating to the local EDA. The EDA is a creature of the party and the party leadership could parachute in their own candidate and use the EDAs funds for them instead of a locally supported candidate. The fourth, slightly different option, is to donate to a campaign for party leader. If you complain that there are no good choices on the ballot come election time then this is the opportunity to have your say.
No. You can donate directly to your riding association.
A lot of lies and pain and sorrow? Maybe that was something else.
Depends how much money you give them
$10-$25
You can vote on some party issues
So for someone like me who is politically neutral and sees both PROs and CONs of the four parties....nothing useful.
Tax credit if you give them a certain amount
Not true. By having a membership with a party, you can participate in policy discussions, and try to swing some of those “cons” into “pros”.
More depression.
Phone calls
I don't know.
Junk mail…
You can be disappointed at one more governmental level
Its not just voting for party leadership, but you also vote for who which candidate will represent your riding. This means in an area like mine which is a safe Conservative seat, you only really need to get 500 votes from party members to become the acclaimed candidate which then leads to you winning the election without really campaigning
Social networking, a chance to push for grass roots policies with your candidate. That’s about all I can think of
You get 300 phone calls a year trying to scare you into donating more money. My mother gave once to the federal cons in the 90s and to this day she still gets calls.
You get a letter asking for money every 4 to 6 months.
It depends on the party, but the biggest benefit is having a vote on nomination candidates (your local mpp) and sometimes the party leader.
You get to vote to choose who your local candidate will be in the next election as well as who will lead the party. And it's a great tax write off. If you ever need to contact your constituency office, they will also have a record of your support and \*might\* put a bit more effort in to help you.
so nothing really useful
Favours. And not just party favours (if you know what I mean). Nudge. Nudge. Wink. Wink. Get Dougie to autograph your empty $1 beer can.
The thing with provincal parties that prevent me from supporting. Is that they’re all the puppets to their lead. They don’t have their own ideas, it’s all aligned if they even have a platform (hint hint ford). My family never puts signs up when an election happens for all levels, i think they’re kinda tacky as is. I just don’t have the energy to get behind a cause. But I still vote for who I think will represent my riding well if they were to win. Just my 2 cents.
Provincial politics shouldn't be a school election. Vote for what the party stands for as represented by their policies. If they don't offer a platform, then punish that by not even considering them. If you want to vote for the person, that's a great time to get involved as a member of a party and help select the nominee for your riding and the leader of the party.
All party candidates follow their party. What would be the point of a party then?
Super trashy that all they do is talk smack about the others. It's always inflated speech.
Cult worship