Liberal Party of Canada Leadership Elections

Liberal Party Of Canada Leadership Elections

The first three leaders of the Liberal Party of Canada were not chosen at a leadership convention. Alexander Mackenzie (March 1873 – April 1880) and Edward Blake (May 1880 – June 1887) were chosen by the party caucus. Wilfrid Laurier (June 1887 – February 1919) was also chosen by caucus members with the party convention of 1893 ratifying his leadership. The most recent leadership convention was held in 2009.

The first Liberal leadership convention was held on August 7, 1919. Balloting continued until one candidate won a majority of votes. After the 1919 convention, a system was adopted where the candidate with the least number of votes on a given ballot is automatically dropped. More recently, any candidate with less than 5% of the vote on the first ballot is also automatically dropped. Since 1919, time has also been given between ballots for candidates to announce if they wish to withdraw and throw their support to another candidate.

The 2009 Liberal leadership convention is the last in which the leader was chosen by delegates. Future leadership elections were to be conducted according to a weighted One Member One Vote system in which all party members could cast ballots but in which they would be counted so that each riding had equal weight. This system, however, has been modified in the 2012 Biennial Convention in Ottawa. In addition to the card-carying membership, registered supporters, a newly created category of Liberal sympathisers, will also be given the right to vote on the Leadership Vote conducted in their constituency.


Read more about Liberal Party Of Canada Leadership Elections:  1919 Leadership Convention Results, 1948 Leadership Convention Results, 1958 Leadership Convention Results, 1968 Leadership Convention Results, 1984 Leadership Convention Results, 1990 Leadership Convention Results, 2003 Leadership Convention Results, 2006 Leadership Convention Results, 2009 Leadership Convention Results, 2013 Leadership Convention

Famous quotes containing the words liberal, party, canada, leadership and/or elections:

    Barnard’s greatest war service ... was the continuance of full-scale instruction in the liberal arts ... It was Barnard’s responsibility to keep alive in the minds of young people the great liberal tradition of the past and the study of philosophy, of history, of Greek.
    Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve (1877–1965)

    It is well-known what a middleman is: he is a man who bamboozles one party and plunders the other.
    Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)

    What makes the United States government, on the whole, more tolerable—I mean for us lucky white men—is the fact that there is so much less of government with us.... But in Canada you are reminded of the government every day. It parades itself before you. It is not content to be the servant, but will be the master; and every day it goes out to the Plains of Abraham or to the Champs de Mars and exhibits itself and toots.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    During the first World War women in the United States had a chance to try their capacities in wider fields of executive leadership in industry. Must we always wait for war to give us opportunity? And must the pendulum always swing back in the busy world of work and workers during times of peace?
    Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)

    In my public statements I have earnestly urged that there rested upon government many responsibilities which affect the moral and spiritual welfare of our people. The participation of women in elections has produced a keener realization of the importance of these questions and has contributed to higher national ideals. Moreover, it is through them that our national ideals are ingrained in our children.
    Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)