Justin Trudeau and Leadership Contest

Liberals: Indeed, the Conservatives’ new membership policy is sharply at odds with the approach adopted by the Liberals during the 2013 leadership contest that put Justin Trudeau at their helm, according to Globe and Mail. Rather than requiring people who wanted to vote in their leadership even to pay their party comparatively cheap $10 membership fee, the Liberals allowed them to join a new supporter class free. It should be trying to engage as many people as possible in the leadership process, they argue, not requiring an investment that could be off-putting to some demographics – including younger and lower-income Canadians – with which it needs to make inroads. Roughly 300,000 Canadians took them up on that, even though only a minority of them actually wound up voting, and the Liberals’ open approach proved valuable in subsequent volunteer recruitment, fundraising and voter identification. There is of course very good value in holding a party membership, especially now when Conservatives are going to be electing the new Prime Minister of Canada, party spokesperson Cory Hann said by e-mail, adding that a substantial cost break is given to a two-year membership fee. In response to concerns about being more exclusive, the official response from Conservative brass is that even the increased fees are a small price to pay. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.