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Party Platform Policy Development and the Green Party of Canada

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Party Platform Policy Development and the Green Party of Canada ERS 490: Party Platform Policy Development and the Green Party of Canada Presented to: Prof. Bob Gibson By: Jeff Harti 4B Environment and Resource Studies University of Waterloo Party Platform Policy Development and the Green Party of Canada Jeff Harti Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction to the General Problem Area ................................................................. 3 2.0 Introduction to GPC Terms ....................................................................................... 5 3.0 Introduction to the general approach taken ................................................................ 7 3.1 Literature Review................................................................................................. 7 3.2 Evaluation of GPC Platform Policy Development Process..................................... 8 3.2.1 Evaluative Criteria and how they will be used................................................. 8 3.3 Participant Feed-back............................................................................................ 9 3.3.1 Way in which Participant Feed-back was Obtained......................................... 9 3.3.2 Way in which Participant Feed-back was used in Report .............................. 10 4.0 Background............................................................................................................. 10 4.1 Green Party of Canada......................................................................................... 10 4.2 Green Party of Canada: Platform 2005 Policy Development Process ................... 11 4.3 Other Canadian Federal Party Policy Development ............................................. 17 5.0 Observations ........................................................................................................... 29 5.1 Personal Observations on the Process .................................................................. 29 5.2 Other Participant Observations on the Process..................................................... 32 6.0 Process Limitations/Development Issues................................................................. 35 7.0 Results .................................................................................................................... 37 7.1 Evaluation of the Process using the Established Evaluative Criteria..................... 37 8.0 Conclusions/Project Limitations.............................................................................. 39 9.0 Next Steps............................................................................................................... 40 References: ................................................................................................................... 41 Appendix A – Participant Observations......................................................................... 43 Appendix B – guidelines for plank leaders .................................................................... 46 2 Party Platform Policy Development and the Green Party of Canada Jeff Harti General Problem Area: An examination of the Green Party of Canada’s attempt to create a more participatory approach to federal party platform policy development in Canada. 1.0 Introduction to the General Problem Area There is something wrong with the state of democracy in Canada today. Political party involvement is in decline and more than ever it seems that Canadians feel disconnected from the politicians who are elected to represent them and detached from the basic exercise of democracy in this country. For instance, voter turnout for federal elections had averaged 75 percent since World War Two, with this rate of participation being maintained through 1988. After 1988, however, voter turnout began to decline with percentage of registered Canadians who voted in the 1993 federal election falling to 70 percent. This pattern of decline continued with only 67 percent voter turnout in 1997, followed by the historic low of 61.2 percent reached in the federal election of 2000. This pattern of decline did slow considerably in 2004 but the voter turnout did still decline to 60.5 percent (Pammett and LeDuc, 2004 p338). Helping to explain this decline are the public perceptions of the politicians and political institutions involved in federal politics. From the data obtained from an Elections Canada survey in 2002, Pammet and LeDuc (2004 p342) found that “[t]here is a widespread perception that politicians are untrustworthy, selfish, unaccountable, lack credibility, are insincere, etc”. This lack of trust fosters a spirit of apathy towards the political process which is further fuelled by the perception that “political participation is meaningless,” due to the situation in many areas of the country where certain parties, 3 Party Platform Policy Development and the Green Party of Canada Jeff Harti which may have been considered meaningful choices, are not seen as having a realistic chance of achieving parliamentary representation (Pammett and Le Duc, 2004 p339). It follows from this then that one possible way of reversing this long-term decline in voter turnout is to increase the opportunities for Canadians to participate meaningfully in the political process. One obvious way of doing this would be through a process of electoral reform which would change the current first-past-the-post voting system in Canada. This option has been talked about federally but it does not appear that the current Liberal minority government is willing to move forward on this issue in any meaningful way and as such, another way for Canadians to have meaningful participation in the political process is necessary. Another option would be increased participation at the federal political party level and specifically increased involvement by Canadians in party policy development process. This paper examines this option by looking at the platform policy development process employed by the Green Party of Canada (GPC). This process will be examined because it seems to represent a change from the way that Canadian federal parties have developed policy in the past, a move towards a more participatory form of policy-making which could serve as a model for other parties in the future at the federal or provincial level, in Canada and beyond. Specifically, the examination of this process will address certain key questions/issues, the key ones of which are listed below: • How do other federal parties in Canada develop their policies? • Does the way in which the GPC develops its policies differ in any fundamental way from that of other federal parties in Canada? 4 Party Platform Policy Development and the Green Party of Canada Jeff Harti • Does the process represent a more participatory approach to policy development? • How do participants in the GPC platform policy development process view this process? • Is this process desirable in terms of further democratization of the way in which policy is developed by federal parties in Canada? • Is this process a desirable way for the GPC to develop its policy, is it generally beneficial for the party? 2.0 Introduction to GPC Terms Platform 2005: The official name for the GPCs platform policy development process for 2005. The main goal of this process is to create the GPCs election platform for the next general election. The Living Platform: “The Living Platform is a public forum where people can discuss Green Party of Canada (GPC) policies, contribute to the research and development of the GPC platform, and explore public policy issues” (GPC, 2005) It is the official policy development website used during the Platform 2005 process (see section 4.2 for more technical details). Subcommittees: Are issue-specific, policy development committees of varying size, which are composed of participants in the Platform 2005 process. Subcommittee Chair: 5 Party Platform Policy Development and the Green Party of Canada Jeff Harti A volunteer participant in the process selected to co-ordinate the plank development efforts of a specific subcommittee. Originally they were selected GPC staff at the beginning of this process but current decisions on chairships are made by the committee of the subcommittee chairs and the platform co-chairs. Plank Leader: A subcommittee member who is assigned by the subcommittee chair to lead the development of a specific policy plank. Sometimes individuals create planks and become de facto plank leaders; there is no strict need for assignation unless multiple volunteers desire the position. The Assembly: Is a group composed of the members of all of the various subcommittees. Its purpose is to vote on planks brought forward by the subcommittees and it is hosted on a Yahoo! Groups listserve (see section 4.2). Platform Co-Chairs: Are three process participants elected by the Assembly to oversee the process. There is one co-chair for each of the three areas: social perspective, economic perspective, and ecological perspective. The individual in each area is supposed to have significant experience in that area. Their specific role as taken from the Living Platform website is described below: The platform co-chairs manage the implementation of the planks that are approved by the assembly in the final stages of development of the platform. • To ensure a balanced and core Green view of ecological, economic, social and democratic concerns throughout the platform. • To help the platform team come up with a preamble, a green vision for Canada that will set the tone for the platform. • To manage the overall integrity, scope and
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