University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2016 Playing in the Margins: Collaboration Between Local Party Organizations in the Canadian Party System Currie-Wood, Robin Currie-Wood, R. (2016). Playing in the Margins: Collaboration Between Local Party Organizations in the Canadian Party System (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27370 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/3172 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Playing in the Margins: Collaboration Between Local Party Organizations in the Canadian Party System by Robin M. Currie-Wood A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTERS OF ART GRADUATE PROGRAM IN POLITICAL SCIENCE CALGARY, ALBERTA AUGUST, 2016 © Robin M. Currie-Wood 2016 ABSTRACT Collaboration between local party organizations is a peculiar organizational trait for Canadian political parties. It is peculiar because local party organizations were once conceived to be solely concerned with electoral activities in their own district, while central parties helped local campaigns in strategically important ridings. Collaboration also goes against the prevailing theory that political parties will centralize operations under new party finance law. Despite this some local party organizations in the Conservative Party of Canada began helping campaigns in other ridings. Financial data are assessed for the Conservative, Liberal, and New Democratic Party between 2007 and 2011 in order to determine why parties at the constituency level mobilize their own resources in other constituencies. Playing in the Margins reveals that collaboration occurs in order to better utilize campaign effort made in competitive and uncompetitive ridings, and may even be a new component of intra-party contests. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS No written work is fully the product of the author. I owe a great deal of gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Anthony M. Sayers. Anthony has been interested in this project since I began at the University of Calgary and he championed my education during grad school. He forced me to bolster my analytical skills by addressing my shortcomings with writing. Anthony was also very relatable outside of the classroom, which was most welcome and kept me motivated over the three-year project. I also owe special thanks to Dr. Melanee Thomas and Dr. David K. Stewart. Melanee and David introduced me to quantitative methods in social science, political processes, and remained involved during the thesis stage of grad school. Special thanks to Dr. Marc-Andre Bodet for making available his data-set that measures riding-level competition. I now know how difficult constructing a data-base can be and appreciate Dr. Bodet’s willingness to share his work. There are many other anonymous academics, political activists and party volunteers who have helped out enormously along the way. Playing in the Margins has been strengthened by the contributions of each person. Any problems in this thesis remain my own. I also wish to thank the Political Science Department administrators, Judi, Bonnie, and Ella. They provided a great deal of help navigating the university bureaucracy. Finally, I wish to thank the taxpayers of Alberta for generously funding a portion of my research through the Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship. This funding was awarded by the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary. iii DEDICATION For my Mom and Dad, the social democrats; For Grammy and Grandaddy Wood, the Tories; and, For Grandma and Grandpa Currie, the agrarian populists. iv Table of Contents ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................... iii DEDICATION .................................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................. v Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Political Parties as Vote Gathering Institutions ........................................................................... 5 Renegotiating the Bargain? Reforming the Party Finance Regime ............................................. 6 Playing in the Margins: Local Party Organizations and Inter-association Funding ..................... 9 The Institutionalist Approach, the Canadian Party System, and Case Selection ...................... 12 Thesis Layout Structure ............................................................................................................. 16 Chapter 2 Harnessing Campaign Effort with Local Party Organizations: Continuity and Change in the Canadian Party System ........................................................................................................... 19 The Logic of Electoral Contests in an Single-Member District Electoral Systems ..................... 21 The Canadian Party System: 2004 – 2011 ................................................................................. 27 Table 2.1: Percentage of Popular Vote Won and Seat Translation in each Province by Political Party ......................................................................................................................... 28 Stratarchically Organized Parties: Central Party Offices and Local Party Organizations .......... 30 Local Party Organizations and Direct and Indirect Campaign Effort ........................................ 34 Reforming Party Finance Law, Altering Electoral Competition................................................. 40 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 48 Chapter 3 Collaboration between Local Party Organizations: The Conservative Advantage in Election Campaigns ....................................................................................................................... 50 Methodology: Follow the Money .............................................................................................. 52 Local Party Fundraising ............................................................................................................. 61 Table 3.1: Election Year EDA Fundraising .............................................................................. 62 Table 3.2 : Electoral District Association Fundraising ............................................................ 65 Table 3.3: Local Party Fundraising Averages by Province ..................................................... 66 Local Party Savings .................................................................................................................... 69 Table 3.4: Electoral District Association Savings ................................................................... 71 v Table 3.5: Electoral District Association Savings Entering an Election Year .......................... 73 Table 3.6: Local Party Savings Averages by Province ............................................................ 75 Intra-Party Funding and the Importance of Inter-Association Fund-Transfers in the Conservative Party of Canada ................................................................................................... 77 Table 3.7: Central vs. Local Intra-Party Fund-transfer Ratio ................................................. 79 Table 3.8: Inter-association Fund-Transfers .......................................................................... 82 Table 3.9: Conservative Party of Canada Riding Association Fund-Transfers ....................... 82 Constituency Campaigning in 2008 and 2011 ........................................................................... 89 Table 3.12: Constituency Campaign Spending Totals by Party and Election Year ................ 91 Table 3.13: The Ratio of Campaign Spending against District Expense Limit by Party and Province ................................................................................................................................. 93 Table 3.14: Ratio of Average Constituency Campaign Spending Against District Expense Limit Compared to District Competitiveness ........................................................................ 95 Discussion .................................................................................................................................. 95 Chapter 4 Local Party Collaboration: Candidate Quality, Electoral Predictability, and Inter- association Funding ...................................................................................................................... 98 Modelling Collaboration between Local Party Organizations ............................................... 101