Summary:  What National Council does. What you should look for in a National Councillor.

National Council elections are not sexy. They are not riveting.  They are not bewitching.  They are not delightful nor are they particularly impressive in any fashion. In the midst of a political party’s convention, National Council elections tend to be shoved into the corner like a spectre at the feast, an unpleasant reminder that a political party is, underneath it all, a business.

And considering this, it makes sense that a political party would play up this dull image, like a street magician using misdirection to guide you toward the razzle-dazzle rather than the business end of the trick.  After all, when you can go to parties and meet political celebrities, who wants to concern themselves with something as mundane as who runs the party?

What a National Council Does

I think that part of the problem is that the average member doesn’t understand what the National Council does.   

In theory, the National Council governs the party. Its powers include:

•    Making, nullifying, and amending party bylaws;

•    Controlling the party’s money matters such as the budget and membership fees;

•    Creating the rules and the committee for the leadership race;

•    Deciding the location and date of conventions.

In reality, the National Council acts as an advisory board for the party.  The party administration comes up with an idea, the National Council votes on it.  This is probably something that you should pay attention to unless you want the party stacking the National Council with people who will simply agree with what they want to do.

Where do National Councillors Come From?

The simple answer is that National Councillors are elected by party members who attend the convention.  There is a rather lengthy process involving forms, signatures, fundraising, speeches, and hospitality suites which starts months before the convention and culminates in a ten-minute announcement of the winners at the end of the convention.  Blink, and you could miss it.

What’s In It For Me

So why should you, the average member, care about who is elected to the National Council? In a word - money. Membership fee went up?  National Council voted on that.  Fundraising phone calls?  National Council voted on that.  The federal party clawed back money from your riding association?  National Council voted on that. $7M spent on C-Vote, the scrapped membership database? National Council voted on that.

The other word would be corruption.  Theoretically, the National Council could create rules for their own benefit, give contracts to their friends, or even skew the leadership race.  So who you vote for is anything but business-as-usual.

Boring is the New Sexy

If your National Councillor hasn’t been acclaimed, it’s relatively easy to decide who to vote for – vote for the person who will defend your interests (psst, this is rarely the candidate the party establishment is backing).

There was a person who ran for the National Council, and the reason they gave as to why people should vote for them is that they always did what the party asked them to do.  Is this person going to defend your interests? Or are they going to rubber-stamp everything the party gives them?

Does the candidate have an agenda?  Do you agree with that agenda?  Why do they want this position?  Are they seeking the office to pad their resume or to parlay this into a job later on down the line?  Do they have a plan to listen to their constituents and present those concerns to National Council?  Are they going to be present at events?

Is your National Councillor returning?  Have you seen him or her at any events that didn’t involve the leader?  Have you heard from them outside of National Council and EDA election season?  How did they vote on unpopular measures?  Have they defended your interests or theirs?  When they made an unpopular decision, did they explain it or did they slink out of the room leaving someone else do their dirty work?  Talk to some of the people that backed the person previously – do they still support them now?

Read their literature, listen to their speech, visit their booth, and more than anything else – ask them some tough questions and analyze what you hear.  There’s more at stake than you think.