A few items of political party news have accumulated that might be of interest to readers.

• The Liberal Party Rocco Rossi is irreplaceable, it turns out; at least by one person. After the Liberal national director's resignation to pursue the Toronto mayoralty, the party split up his previous functions and posted two separate jobs with a January 6 deadline: a new national director, and a new president of the National Liberal Fund who will serve as a chief fundraiser for the party. No word yet on when the results of the competitions will be announced. The Opposition Leader's Office (OLO) party liaison officer Heather Chiasson and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's new chief of staff Peter Donolo are both said to favour more of an NGO-style of management for the party, according to a Hill Times story from last week. Harris Maclead also reported that the new staffers can expect to earn a lot less than Rossi, and won't be able to expense weekly round trips to Toronto either.
  
• The Conservative Party New table officers were elected in early December, headed by both a new party president, John Walsh (fun fact: he's a constituent of NDP Leader Jack Layton's in Toronto – Danforth), and a new vice-president, Kara Johnson. The party's executive director is Dan Hilton. They are undoubtedly celebrating two recent court decisions that went in whole or in part in their favour. More on that in a subsequent post. (h/t Dr. Roy's Thoughts)
  
• The Green Party As we noted in a blogpost at the top of the year, the Green Party has been deliberating on what to do about part of its Bylaw #2, which mandates a leadership convention every four years. The problem they're grappling with is that the four years since their last leadership convention (where Elizabeth May beat David Chernushenko and Jim Fannon) is nearly up, but we're in a permanent election scare, and meantime the party has taken a strategic decision to focus their resources on getting their leader elected in Saanich – Gulf Islands, BC. The party's federal council debated a resolution last night that, if approved by the delegates to their August Biannual General Meeting (BGM), would replace the current bylaw s.2.1.4.5 "The Leader shall be elected in 2006 and every four (4) years thereafter" with a new version reading "The Leader shall be elected by the membership at a meeting of members constituted as a leadership convention, and a vote of confidence in the leader shall be held following a federal general election". Apparently the council has tabled the resolution with directions to consult with the membership, then rewrite the proposed by-law change, and submit it to the August BGM. Should it not be adopted, the resolution provides for a leadership convention before the end of 2010. There is a lot of discussion and debate going on, mainly at the blog of some critical Green party members, and on the party's internal email group. More background from last fall can be found at the democraticSpace blog.
  
  Meanwhile, having recruited some 200 candidates (I'm missing a few names, but thanks to a reader for sending me a list to cross-check against), the party recently laid off 4 three of its 7 regional organizers [UPDATE: and cut a 4th vacant organizer position], which has set off another round of internal debate in the comments section of another Green party member's blog.

In other political party news, it seems a new political party is starting to get organized. A regular correspondent writes to say:

I just wanted to let you know that there could be a new force soon on the political scene. I and many of us have left the Progressive Canadian Party to join with the United Party of Canada. The UCP was started by ... a long time Liberal strategist who left them to come to the PC's. His good ideas to grow the party were spurned so he and others like myself are working to make a party that takes the best ideas of the PC's Liberals, Greens and even the CAP Party. We are looking to gain from all parties but we are also looking for growth from Canadians who are disenfranchised from our current political system. We are especially looking to reengage Canada's youth in the our party and the system .... [M]any of the policies ... [from the Progressive Canadian Party] ... will find their way to the UCP .... [W]e are on the web (the page is rough but will improve).

Last summer we covered three other groups who were trying to register themselves as political parties with Elections Canada: the National Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (whose domain-name registration seems to have expired), along with the Pirate Party of Canada and the True North Party of Canada. To date, it does not appear as though the latter two been successful in meeting the registration requirements.

We also reported last summer that the recently-elected leader of the Canadian Action Party (CAP), Andrew Moulton, quit to join the Christian Heritage Party. Moulton had been elected to replace long-time CAP leader Connie Fogel. Melissa Lee Brade is now the Interim CAP Leader, taking over after the resignation of previous Interim Leader Dave Wilkinson. Brade intends to run again in Yellowhead, AB.

Labels: Conservatives, Greens, Liberals, Political Parties