One member, one vote
Encyclopedia
One member, one vote as used in the parliamentary politics
of the United Kingdom
, Canada
, and the Canadian provinces, is a proposal to select party leaders
and/or determine party policy
, by a direct vote of the members of each party. Traditionally, these objectives have been accomplished either by a party convention
, a vote of Members of Parliament
, or some form of electoral college
. OMOV backers claim that OMOV enhances the practice of democracy, because ordinary citizens will be able to participate. Detractors counter that allowing those unversed in the issues to help make decisions makes for bad governance.
in Canada was held by the Parti Québécois
, ending on 29 September 1985.
In English-speaking Canada, the principle of OMOV has for years been a major commitment of Vaughan L. Baird. Long a proponent of the election process that empowers all members of a party to chose their leaders, Baird was instrumental in having the provincial constituency of Morris
, Manitoba
successfully put forward the principle of OMOV to the provincial Progressive Conservative Party
on 5 November 1985. Immediately after the Morris victory, Baird wrote to every national and provincial party in Canada and urged them to do the same. Soon after, the Manitoba Liberal Party
adopted the principle. Alberta
PCs used the method in electing Ralph Klein as their new leader in December 1992.
Manitoba PCs adopted the process in early 1987, but the hierarchy of the PC Party had it revoked. Though again adopted by the party in 1994, OMOV was revoked a second time in November 1995. Finally, on November 17, 2001, by almost unanimous consent (only three votes against the motion), OMOV was passed by the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba. Thus after 16 years of effort, the vote for leadership of the provincial PC party was democratized.
Also in 1995, the New Democratic Party
moved some way towards OMOV when they developed a series of regional primary elections prior to their convention. In the subsequent contest, he party went further adopted a modified OMOV process for the 2003 NDP leadership election
in which the vote was calculated so that ballots cast by labour delegates had 25% weight in the total result, while votes cast by all party members on an OMOV had a weight of 75%. When the federal Liberal government changed the election finances law, soon after Jack Layton
won the NDP's leadership in the modified OMOV election on January 23, 2003, the party implemented full OMOV for its next leadership convention.
The Bloc Québécois
first used OMOV in its 1997 leadership election
.
More recently in Canada, the Alberta Progressive Conservatives elected a new leader, Ed Stelmach
, who succeeded former premier Ralph Klein, utilizing the OMOV system. 97,000 people voted in December 2006.
The Conservative Party of Canada
uses a weighted OMOV system in which all ridings are accorded an equal number of points and those points are distributed to candidates proportionately to how party members in that riding vote. The Canadian Alliance
used a pure OMOV system but in merger negotiations with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
it was agreed to adopt the weighted system used in the 1998 Progressive Conservative leadership election in order to encourage leadership candidates to seek support across the country.
In 2009, the Liberal Party of Canada
adopted a weighted membership vote in which each riding counts equally in the final tally. This is not a one member, one vote system because, by definition, members have a variable number of votes depending on the riding they live in. However, it is similar to one member, one vote in the sense that every party member is entitled to cast a ballot. Future leadership elections will be conducted according to the same weighted process used by the Conservative Party. The 2009 convention was conducted according to the old rules. However, as this convention did not feature a contested race but was a ratification of Michael Ignatieff
's leadership, the last example of a full-blown delegated federal leadership convention being the 2006 convention that elected Stéphane Dion
.
, the methods of selecting party leaders gradually and in some cases slowly developed as parliamentary parties took shape and grew more rigid over time. In some cases, leadership selection methods for British political parties were not developed until many decades after their counterparts elsewhere in the Commonwealth had long-established methods for electing leaders - for example, the Conservative Party did not adopt a formal method for choosing its leaders until 1965. Traditionally, Members of Parliament have usually played a major role in selecting a party leaders, based largely on the belief that since a leader had to work closely with his parliamentary party, their views on who the leader should be had to be paramount. In recent years, all major parties have implemented reforms to allow ordinary party members a say in the choosing of a new leader, while still allowing MPs a central role in the leadership selection process.
During his brief time as leader of the Labour Party
between 1992-94, John Smith
abolished the trade union block vote at Labour Party conferences, and replaced it with a system of one member one vote. All Labour Party members are also entitled to vote for the Leader and Deputy Leader of the party as part of an electoral college
which includes Members of Parliament
(MPs), Members of the European Parliament
and trade unions.
In January 1998, the OMOV principle was adopted as part of the series of reforms of the Conservative Party
. The MPs would choose two candidates to go to a vote by all Conservative members.
The system was first used by the Conservatives in the 2001 leadership election
to replace William Hague
. A run off by various candidates led to Iain Duncan Smith
and Kenneth Clarke
being put forward to a vote of all Conservative members, with the final result announced on September 12, 2001. The eligible voters were 328,000 members of the Conservative Party of which 79% of the voters exercised their rights on said date. Duncan Smith became the new Leader of the Conservative Party with 61% of the votes (155,933 votes). Kenneth Clarke
obtained 39% of the votes (100,544 votes).
In the 2003 leadership election
no ballot took place, since Michael Howard
was unopposed in standing to replace Duncan Smith - but the two candidate run off was employed again two years later
. On December 6, 2005, it was announced that David Cameron
had been chosen by the Conservative members to be the new leader over David Davis
. Cameron had 134,446 votes compared to Davis’ 64,398 votes, making a total number of 198,844 votes.
Thus both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party in Britain now elect their leaders by processes which include all their members having the right to vote at some point.
On the other hand, the Liberal Democrats
have always elected their leaders through a one member, one vote system since the party's foundation in 1988. Rather than having a runoff the Liberal Democrats use the Alternative Vote
system of preference voting. Liberal Democrat MPs have no special voting rights when choosing the leader - however, a prospective candidate must be a sitting Liberal Democrat MP with the support of at least ten percent of the Parliamentary Party in order to stand in a leadership election.
Parliamentary system
A parliamentary system is a system of government in which the ministers of the executive branch get their democratic legitimacy from the legislature and are accountable to that body, such that the executive and legislative branches are intertwined....
of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and the Canadian provinces, is a proposal to select party leaders
Executive (government)
Executive branch of Government is the part of government that has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the idea of the separation of powers.In many countries, the term...
and/or determine party policy
Elective dictatorship
An "elective dictatorship" is a phrase coined by the former Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom, Lord Hailsham, in a Richard Dimbleby Lecture at the BBC in 1976. It describes the state in which Parliament is dominated by the government of the day...
, by a direct vote of the members of each party. Traditionally, these objectives have been accomplished either by a party convention
Leadership convention
In Canadian politics, a leadership convention is held by a political party when the party needs to choose a leader due to a vacancy or a challenge to the incumbent leader.- Overview :...
, a vote of Members of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, or some form of electoral college
Electoral college
An electoral college is a set of electors who are selected to elect a candidate to a particular office. Often these represent different organizations or entities, with each organization or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way...
. OMOV backers claim that OMOV enhances the practice of democracy, because ordinary citizens will be able to participate. Detractors counter that allowing those unversed in the issues to help make decisions makes for bad governance.
Canada
The first OMOV leadership selection processParti Québécois leadership election, 1985
The Parti Québécois leadership election of 1985 was held to elect a new leader of the Parti Québécois, the main sovereigntist and social democratic political party in Quebec, Canada. It elected Pierre-Marc Johnson at the helm of the party...
in Canada was held by the Parti Québécois
Parti Québécois
The Parti Québécois is a centre-left political party that advocates national sovereignty for the province of Quebec and secession from Canada. The Party traditionally has support from the labour movement. Unlike many other social-democratic parties, its ties with the labour movement are informal...
, ending on 29 September 1985.
In English-speaking Canada, the principle of OMOV has for years been a major commitment of Vaughan L. Baird. Long a proponent of the election process that empowers all members of a party to chose their leaders, Baird was instrumental in having the provincial constituency of Morris
Morris, Manitoba
Morris is a small town of about 1700 people in the Pembina Valley region of Manitoba, Canada, located about 50 km south of Winnipeg and 50 km north of Emerson. Morris is host to the annual Manitoba Stampede & Exhibition. Highway 75 which turns in to Interstate 29 is the major highway...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
successfully put forward the principle of OMOV to the provincial Progressive Conservative Party
Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba
The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba is the only right wing political party in Manitoba, Canada. It is also the official opposition party in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.-Origins and early years:...
on 5 November 1985. Immediately after the Morris victory, Baird wrote to every national and provincial party in Canada and urged them to do the same. Soon after, the Manitoba Liberal Party
Manitoba Liberal Party
The Manitoba Liberal Party is a political party in Manitoba, Canada. Its roots can be traced to the late nineteenth-century, following the province's creation in 1870.-Origins and early development :...
adopted the principle. Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
PCs used the method in electing Ralph Klein as their new leader in December 1992.
Manitoba PCs adopted the process in early 1987, but the hierarchy of the PC Party had it revoked. Though again adopted by the party in 1994, OMOV was revoked a second time in November 1995. Finally, on November 17, 2001, by almost unanimous consent (only three votes against the motion), OMOV was passed by the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba. Thus after 16 years of effort, the vote for leadership of the provincial PC party was democratized.
Also in 1995, the New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
moved some way towards OMOV when they developed a series of regional primary elections prior to their convention. In the subsequent contest, he party went further adopted a modified OMOV process for the 2003 NDP leadership election
New Democratic Party leadership election, 2003
The New Democratic Party leadership election of 2003 was held to replace New Democratic Party of Canada leader Alexa McDonough, after her retirement...
in which the vote was calculated so that ballots cast by labour delegates had 25% weight in the total result, while votes cast by all party members on an OMOV had a weight of 75%. When the federal Liberal government changed the election finances law, soon after Jack Layton
Jack Layton
John Gilbert "Jack" Layton, PC was a Canadian social democratic politician and the Leader of the Official Opposition. He was the leader of the New Democratic Party from 2003 to 2011, and previously sat on Toronto City Council, serving at times during that period as acting mayor and deputy mayor of...
won the NDP's leadership in the modified OMOV election on January 23, 2003, the party implemented full OMOV for its next leadership convention.
The Bloc Québécois
Bloc Québécois
The Bloc Québécois is a federal political party in Canada devoted to the protection of Quebec's interests in the House of Commons of Canada, and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty. The Bloc was originally a party made of Quebec nationalists who defected from the federal Progressive Conservative...
first used OMOV in its 1997 leadership election
Bloc Québécois leadership elections
Lucien Bouchard, the first leader of the Bloc Québécois was elected by acclamation by the MPs who formed the Bloc in 1990. When the party held its first convention in April 1995 his leadership was ratified by the delegates.-1996 BQ leadership election:...
.
More recently in Canada, the Alberta Progressive Conservatives elected a new leader, Ed Stelmach
Ed Stelmach
Edward Michael "Ed" Stelmach, MLA is a Canadian politician and served as the 13th Premier of Alberta, Canada, from 2006 to 2011. The grandson of Ukrainian immigrants, Stelmach was born and raised on a farm near Lamont and speaks fluent Ukrainian. He spent his entire pre-political adult life as a...
, who succeeded former premier Ralph Klein, utilizing the OMOV system. 97,000 people voted in December 2006.
The Conservative Party of Canada
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
uses a weighted OMOV system in which all ridings are accorded an equal number of points and those points are distributed to candidates proportionately to how party members in that riding vote. The Canadian Alliance
Canadian Alliance
The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
used a pure OMOV system but in merger negotiations with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
it was agreed to adopt the weighted system used in the 1998 Progressive Conservative leadership election in order to encourage leadership candidates to seek support across the country.
In 2009, the Liberal Party of Canada
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
adopted a weighted membership vote in which each riding counts equally in the final tally. This is not a one member, one vote system because, by definition, members have a variable number of votes depending on the riding they live in. However, it is similar to one member, one vote in the sense that every party member is entitled to cast a ballot. Future leadership elections will be conducted according to the same weighted process used by the Conservative Party. The 2009 convention was conducted according to the old rules. However, as this convention did not feature a contested race but was a ratification of Michael Ignatieff
Michael Ignatieff
Michael Grant Ignatieff is a Canadian author, academic and former politician. He was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011...
's leadership, the last example of a full-blown delegated federal leadership convention being the 2006 convention that elected Stéphane Dion
Stéphane Dion
Stéphane Maurice Dion, PC, MP is a Canadian politician who has been the Member of Parliament for the riding of Saint-Laurent–Cartierville in Montreal since 1996. He was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and the Leader of the Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons from 2006 to 2008...
.
United Kingdom
In the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the methods of selecting party leaders gradually and in some cases slowly developed as parliamentary parties took shape and grew more rigid over time. In some cases, leadership selection methods for British political parties were not developed until many decades after their counterparts elsewhere in the Commonwealth had long-established methods for electing leaders - for example, the Conservative Party did not adopt a formal method for choosing its leaders until 1965. Traditionally, Members of Parliament have usually played a major role in selecting a party leaders, based largely on the belief that since a leader had to work closely with his parliamentary party, their views on who the leader should be had to be paramount. In recent years, all major parties have implemented reforms to allow ordinary party members a say in the choosing of a new leader, while still allowing MPs a central role in the leadership selection process.
During his brief time as leader of the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
between 1992-94, John Smith
John Smith (UK politician)
John Smith was a British Labour Party politician who served as Leader of the Labour Party from July 1992 until his sudden death from a heart attack in May 1994...
abolished the trade union block vote at Labour Party conferences, and replaced it with a system of one member one vote. All Labour Party members are also entitled to vote for the Leader and Deputy Leader of the party as part of an electoral college
Electoral college
An electoral college is a set of electors who are selected to elect a candidate to a particular office. Often these represent different organizations or entities, with each organization or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way...
which includes Members of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MPs), Members of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
and trade unions.
In January 1998, the OMOV principle was adopted as part of the series of reforms of the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
. The MPs would choose two candidates to go to a vote by all Conservative members.
The system was first used by the Conservatives in the 2001 leadership election
Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2001
The 2001 Conservative leadership election was held after the United Kingdom Conservative Party failed to make inroads into the Labour government's lead in the 2001 general election. Party leader William Hague resigned, and a leadership contest was called under new rules Hague had introduced...
to replace William Hague
William Hague
William Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...
. A run off by various candidates led to Iain Duncan Smith
Iain Duncan Smith
George Iain Duncan Smith is a British Conservative politician. He is currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and was previously leader of the Conservative Party from September 2001 to October 2003...
and Kenneth Clarke
Kenneth Clarke
Kenneth Harry "Ken" Clarke, QC, MP is a British Conservative politician, currently Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. He was first elected to Parliament in 1970; and appointed a minister in Edward Heath's government, in 1972, and is one of...
being put forward to a vote of all Conservative members, with the final result announced on September 12, 2001. The eligible voters were 328,000 members of the Conservative Party of which 79% of the voters exercised their rights on said date. Duncan Smith became the new Leader of the Conservative Party with 61% of the votes (155,933 votes). Kenneth Clarke
Kenneth Clarke
Kenneth Harry "Ken" Clarke, QC, MP is a British Conservative politician, currently Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. He was first elected to Parliament in 1970; and appointed a minister in Edward Heath's government, in 1972, and is one of...
obtained 39% of the votes (100,544 votes).
In the 2003 leadership election
Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2003
The 2003 Conservative leadership election was caused by the enforced resignation of incumbent leader Iain Duncan-Smith after the loss of a confidence vote amongst his parliamentary party...
no ballot took place, since Michael Howard
Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...
was unopposed in standing to replace Duncan Smith - but the two candidate run off was employed again two years later
Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2005
The 2005 Conservative leadership election was called by party leader Michael Howard on 6 May 2005, when he announced that he would be stepping down as leader in the near future. However, he stated that he would not depart until a review of the rules for the leadership election had been conducted,...
. On December 6, 2005, it was announced that David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
had been chosen by the Conservative members to be the new leader over David Davis
David Davis (British politician)
David Michael Davis is a British Conservative Party politician who is the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Haltemprice and Howden...
. Cameron had 134,446 votes compared to Davis’ 64,398 votes, making a total number of 198,844 votes.
Thus both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party in Britain now elect their leaders by processes which include all their members having the right to vote at some point.
On the other hand, the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
have always elected their leaders through a one member, one vote system since the party's foundation in 1988. Rather than having a runoff the Liberal Democrats use the Alternative Vote
Instant-runoff voting
Instant-runoff voting , also known as preferential voting, the alternative vote and ranked choice voting, is a voting system used to elect one winner. Voters rank candidates in order of preference, and their ballots are counted as one vote for their first choice candidate. If a candidate secures a...
system of preference voting. Liberal Democrat MPs have no special voting rights when choosing the leader - however, a prospective candidate must be a sitting Liberal Democrat MP with the support of at least ten percent of the Parliamentary Party in order to stand in a leadership election.