Conservative Convention: Policy and Constitutional Debate

Conservative Convention: Policy and Constitutional Debate

By Andrew Thomson | UPDATED August 30, 2023 4:11pmET

As per usual at Conservative conventions, delegates in Quebec City have an array of resolutions on party policy and internal operations.

Read Policy Resolutions

Read Constitutional Resolutions

POLICY

Conservatives will debate changes to the party's official Policy Declaration -- a 70-page document with 173 sections.

This year's list includes:

  • A ban on “life altering medicinal or surgical interventions on minors under 18 to treat gender confusion or dysphoria”
  • A belief that “women are entitled to the safety, dignity, and privacy of single-sex spaces (e.g., prisons, shelters, locker rooms, washrooms) and the benefits of women-only categories (e.g., sports, awards, grants, scholarships)”
  • Condemning mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion training for workers
  • A pledge to “safeguard Canadians’ rights to create and access content on the internet without government-sanctioned censorship, and nullify unconstitutional restrictions”
  • Adding to the party's carbon tax opposition that: “significant emissions reductions are achievable through … new and/or improved technologies or wise policy”
  • A "right to refuse vaccines for moral, religious, medical or other reasons”
  • Ensuring that “no constitutional right shall be restricted for refusing medical treatments or disclosure”
  • Opposing medical assistance in dying (MAID) for “mental illness” and people not terminally ill, “for people living with disabilities or mental illness seeking to die based on poverty, homelessness or inability to receive medical treatment"
  • A “three strikes” rule for violating the Conflict of Interest Act
  • A call to ban Chinese participation at sensitive Canadian research facilities and advocate China's removal from the World Trade Organization (WTO)
  • Expanded income splitting between ages 55 and 65 and no tax on working income for people 65 and older
  • Encouraging banks to consider a client’s rental payment history when they apply for a mortgage

There were two options for grassroots policy resolutions to advance to the convention:

  • 42 resolutions based on national online voting -- each riding association could assign 20 votes as approved by board members;
  • 18 resolutions based on regional meetings or the regional breakdown of online voting (4 ON / 3 QC / 2 each for AB, BC, and SK / 1 each for NB, NS, NL, PEI, and the North).

The convention separates those 60 resolutions into three workshops:

  1. Defence, Foreign Affairs and Democratic Reform
  2. Economy and Environment
  3. Health, Social Policy and Criminal Justice

The top 10 from each session -- 30 resolutions in total -- move to final plenary debate and potential adoption as official Conservative party policy.

CONSTITUTION

Delegates must also consider 30 amendments to the Conservative Party of Canada's constitution.

Those resolutions emerged from earlier online voting and regional meetings. 

At the convention a Friday workshop determines what moves on to Saturday's plenary debate. 

The resolution package includes:

  • Creating an automatic leadership review after an election where the Conservatives don’t form government, and the leader has not indicated plans to resign (The current rule only forces one at the first convention after such an election)
  • Forcing the leader to promote and implement the CPC Policy Declaration and not “deviate” when developing an election platform or legislation
  • A call to modernize the leadership voting process, which only allows for postal submission
  • Clarifying the rules around petitions and leadership reviews – following the party blocking a 2021 petition by Senator Denise Batters to challenge Erin O’Toole’s leadership
  • Giving local riding associations (EDAs) a veto over a party decision to disallow candidates
  • Clarifying that Conservative support for free trade must recognize Canada’s sovereignty, economic well-being and security interests
  • Allowing non-resident Canadians to remain active party members
  • Allowing more grassroots input into convention planning, including the amount of time set aside for constitutional and policy debate
  • More accountability for Conservative Fund Canada (the party's fundraising and financial arm)
  • More transparency about the CPC executive director’s use of discretionary powers

THE VOTING

Constitutional and policy changes require a double majority on the convention floor.

That's a "majority of votes cast by delegates and a majority of votes cast by delegates from each of a majority of individual provinces." (The three territories are equal to one province.)

As an example, the 2021 convention voted nearly three-quarters in favour of changing the leadership voting process -- a divisive subject since the party's founding.  

Still, the measure also required a favourable provincial breakdown:

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