2020- 2022 Policy Process | Green Party of Canada

Focus

The GPC policy development process is focused on three types of proposals for approval by membership:

• Policy: Proposals that, if adopted in a vote open to all members, forms the background for the party's election platforms and articulates what the party will work towards if elected. The GPC defines a policy as a principle-based statement which does not contain any specific strategy or tactical statements. This approach is used to ensure our policies endure over time, and also gives Green MPs flexibility on how to operationalize our policies based on the current national circumstances.
• Constitutional: Proposals to add, delete or amend sections of the Party's constitution or bylaws.
• Directive: Proposals specific to internal operations that, if passed, provide direction to the Federal Council.

Phases

This process has four phases:

Submission of proposals:

Proposal submissions were accepted in 2020. The editing phase of the proposals concluded at the end of May 2021. The amendment stage took place between the end of May and mid June 2021.

In 2018, party membership supported the implementation of a continuous development process. That process has not yet been implemented. The Policy Development Process Committee is starting to work on a continuous proposal development process.

Online prioritization vote:

The online prioritization vote, commonly called the Bonser vote, closed on August 11th, 2021. The Bonser vote is a colour-coded voting process. A green vote means "I understand this proposal and am in favour of it." A red vote means "I understand this proposal and am opposed to it." A yellow vote means "I do not like this proposal's present wording, but the concept has merit" or "I wish to learn more about this proposal." The results of the 2021 Bonser vote were shared with members and can be accessed on the member's portal of the GPC website.

Green lit proposals received more than 60% green votes of the votes cast, and are presented to members for consideration for adoption at the general meeting.

Red lit proposals received more than 60% red votes of the votes cast, and are presented to members for rejection at the general meeting.

All other proposals are "yellow" and will go to workshop groups for further debate and possible amendments. These proposals will then return to a plenary session for a vote to accept or reject the workshopped proposals.

Convention:

Due to Covid, the convention was moved to an online format that was separated into two phases. The second phase of the virtual general meeting was held in March 2022. Members adopted 65 proposals during the two phases of the virtual general meeting. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to consider all the proposals. There were 20 workshopped proposals that were not voted on by members. These 20 proposals will NOT be included in the post convention final online vote. You can review the virtual general meeting results on this We Decide webpage

Post- convention final online vote (ratification vote):

Following the virtual general meeting, the final deciding vote on the proposals and emergency motions adopted at the meeting will be done through an online vote that is open to all party members. An email updating members about the vote should be sent between May 24th to 29th, 2022. If you do not receive this email update, please check your spam or junk folder before contacting the GPC.

In order to allow members to vote on a smaller number of proposals at one time, the Policy Development Process Committee has recommended dividing the 65 proposals into three separate ballots. This decision was made because the tool used by the party, Simply Voting, does not allow members to save their progress and finish their ballot later. Trying to vote on all 65 proposals at one time would be a pretty onerous task!

Members will therefore receive a ballot once a week for three consecutive weeks. Members will have 30 days to complete each ballot starting from the date they receive it via email. Each ballot will identify the date and time when voting on that ballot closes. If you wish your voice to be heard on all 65 proposals, complete all three ballots. If you only complete part of the ballots, your votes will only count for the proposals listed on the ballots you completed. So, to ensure your vote is registered for all the proposals adopted at the virtual general meeting phase 1 and 2, please complete all 3 ballots.