Liberal Party of Canada Leadership Election, 2006 - Rules

Rules

The date and rules of the convention were decided upon by the Liberal Party National Executive during its meeting on March 18–19, 2006.

The party constitution required that a convention be held within a year of the leader's resignation and that the party's biennial convention be held by March 2007. The leadership convention also served as the party's regular policy convention, so there was debate and voting on policy resolutions and an election for the party's executive.

Selection of delegates by riding associations and party clubs occurred on the weekend of September 29 to October 1. Only those who have purchased or renewed their party membership by July 4, 2006 were eligible to vote. Approximately 850 ex-officio delegates who automatically gained the right to attend the convention by virtue of being a Liberal Member of Parliament, recent candidate, Senator, etc. The Liberal Aboriginal Peoples’ Commission was entitled to send a delegation that is in proportion to the percentage of the Canadian population that is Aboriginal. All delegates, except those with ex-officio status and those who won election as independent delegates, were bound to a particular candidate on the first ballot, but all delegates were free to vote as they wished on subsequent ballots.

Each candidate had to gather the signatures of at least 300 Liberal Party members, including at least 100 in each of three provinces or territories, and pay a $50,000 fee to enter the contest (down from $75,000 at the previous convention). The spending limit for each campaign was set at $3.4 million, down from $4 million. All of the first $500,000 raised by each candidate was kept by the candidate's campaign, and any amount raised above that figure was subject to a 20% levy by the party. In contrast to the previous campaign when the sale of party memberships was severely restricted, the executive decided to allow party membership to be purchased online.

The Convention Organization Committee and the convention proceedings were co-chaired by Dominic LeBlanc and Tanya Kappo. Steven MacKinnon, the National Director of the party, was the General Secretary of the convention.

The deadline for candidates to enter the race was September 30.

The voting was done in two stages on the ballot:

1. The top part of the ballot listed the names of each of the leadership candidates; party members could vote for a candidate or remain undeclared.
2. The second part of the ballot listed names of prospective delegates who were standing on behalf of the various leadership candidates.
   • Riding associations had fourteen delegate positions: four men, four women, two seniors (over age 65) and four youths (under 26).
   • Women's clubs had two delegate position each.
   • Youth clubs and seniors' clubs each had four delegates, of which two were male and two were female.

Ex-officio delegates could automatically attend and vote at the convention without the requirement of getting elected. Ex-officio delegates included MPs, senators, riding association presidents, immediate past candidates, and a certain number of party executive members and members of the executive of various Liberal Party Commissions (such as the national youth commission, national women's commission, national Aboriginal commission, etc.) and provincial sections of the federal party as laid out in Section 16(13) of the party constitution.

At the convention, the first ballot by elected delegates was preset according by proportional representation according to the amount of support each leadership candidate received at the delegate selection meeting (the "leadership portion" of the ballot cast at riding association or club meetings), even if the delegate has personally expressed support for another candidate. Ex-officio and undeclared delegates could vote however they wish, while declared delegates were compelled to vote for their declared candidate, their only other choice being to abstain from voting on the first round. On the second ballot (which occurred because no leadership candidate received over 50% of the vote on the first ballot), all delegates were free to vote according to their personal preference.