Keith Archer

Do conventions matter? : choosing national party leaders in Canada

Do Conventions Matter? provides a complete overview of national party conventions in Canada, from 1919, when the first convention was held, to 1993, including the selection of Stanfield, Trudeau, Broadbent, Clark, Mulroney, Turner, McLaughlin, Chretien, Campbell, and Manning. Courtney compares leadership selection practices in Canada with those in the United States, Britain, and Australia, and shows that Canadian conventions remain a distinctive means of choosing party leaders. Focusing on modern developments in the convention process, Courtney highlights changes in representation over the last thirty years, addresses criticisms about costs and delegate selection practices, and examines the role of the media. He concludes with an examination of the future of conventions in the context of Canadian democracy, given sky-rocketing costs, the movement to reform political parties, and the push towards a universal membership vote. He argues convincingly that the objectives of greater representation and greater democracy explain both the emergence of conventions to choose the leaders of federal parties and their possible demise in the near future.

Inflation, Unemployment and Canadian Federal Voting Behaviour

Identifying the effect of macro-economic performance on levels of partisan support in Canada has attracted considerable attention. Findings in Canada, as elsewhere, often diverge depending upon whether aggregate or individual-level data are used. This study employs individual-level data from 1974 to 1984 to examine the effect of changes in unemployment and inflation on support for the various parties. Controlling for partisan and leader effects, we find that the electoral effect of inflation and unemployment is highly variable over time, and is in an unstable partisan direction. Indeed, at times the partisan effect was perverse.

Opinion Structure of Party Activists: The Reform Party of Canada

This article provides a systematic examination of the social bases and ideological and policy orientations of the Reform party of Canada through a study of the attitudes of delegates attending its 1992 national assembly. We identify the core political attitudes of Reform activists, and examine whether their positions on policy matters are distinctive and whether they are characterized by internal cohesion or division. We then examine the partys mobilization strategy to determine the extent to which this strategy produces systematic cleavages among party activists. Our analysis reveals that Reform promotes a distinctive position on a number of salient political issues. However, we also challenge the view that Reform activists are united by a unidimensional right-wing ideology. We conclude by discussing the impact of party mobilization on future divisions within the party.

Opinion Structure Among New Democratic Party Activists: A Comparison with Liberals and Conservatives

There is substantial disagreement over the extent to which political parties in Canada can be distinguished on ideological grounds. Research on mass publics has usually concluded that ideology plays only a modest role in structuring orientations towards parties. However, a growing body of survey data on party activists suggests a greater degree of ideological clarity and policy cohesiveness. This note extends earlier research by Blake, Johnston and Perlin on Liberal and Conservative convention delegates and compares them with delegates to the 1987 federal New Democratic party convention. Survey data on convention delegates suggest that political activists array themselves in a relatively consistent manner across a range of issues in ways that are compatible with a left/right ideological typology. Our findings also suggest that New Democrats display the greatest consensus and ideological distinctiveness of the three parties studied.

Political choices and electoral consequences : a study of organized labour and the New Democratic Party

The most important link between labour and the NDP is the direct party affiliation of union locals. While this sort of affiliation had existed with the CCF, the Canadian Labour Congress showed a greater commitment to encouraging union locals to affiliate with the NDP. Although, as Archer discusses in both theoretical and empirical terms, individuals who belong to union locals formally linked to the NDP are more likely to vote for that party than are other people with similar socio-demographic characteristics, this has had little positive effect on the NDPs fortunes. Archer reveals that although, in principle, each union local may favour high rates of affiliation, it is often not in a locals self-interest to affiliate. Archer suggests that the main reason for such a disappointing record of affiliation is structural rather than ideological or cultural. He compares the Canadian situation to that in Britain, where the Labour Party rules governing affiliation have supported high rates of affiliation. The rules of the NDP, Archer goes on to show, are not significantly different from those that were developed between labour and the CCF. However, the CCF was not a labour party as such but rather an amalgam of farmers, labourers, and members of constituency associations. Labours role has consequently remained that of a junior partner with the constituency groups. Under these circumstances, Archer argues, one would expect rates of affiliation to remain low.

Redefining Electoral Democracy in Canada

545 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS are expressions of previous political decisions, compromises and understandings. They shape the terrain of political competition and they define the rules of the political game. In short, political institutions are the parameters of politics. Although the institutional arrangements within a political system do not change easily or often, there are times in the life of a political community when the institutions themselves are debated and potentially reformed. For a reform initiative to be successful, it must meet three conditions—there must be demonstrable inadequacies with the existing system, there must be agreement that reform is worthwhile, and there must be a legitimate process whereby the potential reforms are identified and brought forward for discussion and potential adoption. This paper examines the reform of Canada’s electoral system as a case study in reforming political institutions. It will be shown that the first condition, demonstrable inadequacies in the existing system, has been met. The second condition, agreement that reform is worthwhile, appears to have been met, at least when examined from the perspective of the electorate. The third condition, the development of a legitimate reform process, has not been met at the federal level. However, current discussions at the provincial level, coupled with the recent appointment of a new Prime Minister committed to battling the “democratic deficit,” suggests the third condition likely will be met in some provinces, and may also be met at the federal level. The most interesting experiment currently in the field is in British Columbia, and it will be examined in a preliminary manner.

Partnership and Innovation in School - Based Mental Health: A Canadian Perspective

The article provides an overview of the social policy and research context for the development of innovative partnerships in school-based settings in Canada. In particular, it focuses on an expanded case study of two school-based programs operating in the Province of Alberta, Canada, one in an urban setting and one in a semi-rural environment. Quantitative and qualitative outcomes for both programs are presented. Challenges and opportunities involved in innovations in existing systems of mental health care are presented, along with the critical elements of partnership necessary to ensure sustainability and ongoing program efficacy. These elements include effective co-ordination of resources at the intake and screening level and the provision of specialist resources early in the process of identification. A collaborative identification model, which improves the capacity of all the stakeholders, a strong component of family support and empowerment and continued patience and perseverance to work through issues are all critical in sustaining effective student health partnerships.

On the Study of Political Parties in Canada

Political parties are institutions of central importance in the democratic process, and the study of parties is an important reflection of the state of political science as a discipline. As a key linkage between state and society, parties can tell us a great deal about the winners and losers of political competition, about the degree to which structural biases exist in the decision-making process, and about the effectiveness of our system of political representation. An examination of parties also can provide a bearing on the implications of other institutional characteristics within the political system, including the effects of the electoral system, parliamentary versus congressional executive-legislative relations and federalism. Not only can we learn much about the operation of Canadian democracy from studying political parties, we also can learn much about the study of political science. Parties are so amorphous, they touch on so many aspects of the political process, and they have such intriguing