Constitution Proposal #909
4. MEMBERSHIP
Eligibility Check after Application for Party Membership
Co-Sponsoring EDA’s
Davenport,Eglinton–Lawrence,Ottawa Centre,Scarborough–Guildwood–Rouge Park,Wellington–Halton Hills North,Elmwood–Transcona,Provencher,Saskatoon South,Calgary Signal Hill,Foothills,Abbotsford–South Langley,Richmond Centre–Marpole,Richmond East–Steveston,Saanich–Gulf Islands,Skeena–Bulkley Valley,Vernon–Lake Country–Monashee
Short Summary of Proposal
This proposal addresses a vulnerability in the Conservative Party of Canada's membership process: applicants must self-declare eligibility (as Canadian citizens or permanent residents), but the Party lacks effective verification to confirm these claims are true. This exposes the Party to potential infiltration by ineligible individuals seeking influence, such as voting in nomination contests. Standard ID (e.g., driver's licence) only verifies identity, not eligibility. To genuinely prevent foreign interference in Party affairs, the Party must implement measures to ensure only demonstrably eligible persons are on the membership list, though the proposal does not dictate specific methods.
Frequently Asked Questions
Aren’t you proposing a solution for a problem that does not exist?
The problem does exist, and a long report describing it was published after a public inquiry in January 2025. Here’s what the Commissioner says on page 65: “All political party representatives who testified ... stated that the internal measures that have been put in place to ensure the integrity [of [leadership and nomination races, specifically] were sufficient, whereas in my view, they are not.” Of course they are not sufficient. The fact is that, because of the lack of previous eligibility checking, we are quite unable to discern whether we currently possess integrity in our elections or not. And unless we change our approach, we shall not be able to improve things in the future.
Isn’t your proposal going to make things much more complicated for the applicant?
Not at all! Here’s a straightforward way of setting up the system: require all applicants to upload, along with their application, a document proving their eligibility. Each of us regularly does this kind of thing for other purposes. It’s not complicated, but it would make ineligible people less likely to apply in the first place. The very existence of the rule would deter misbehaviour. And it would also enable the Party to discover ineligible people among those who do apply.
But don’t we ask for documentation during the actual elections themselves?
Yes, but the documentation required (Constitution 4.6) does NOT prove that the voter is at least a permanent resident of Canada. It merely proves that the person seeking to vote is truly the person found on the membership list – which only takes us back to the question: “yes, but were they truly eligible to get onto the membership list in the first place?” E.g., you don’t need to be permanent resident to hold a driving license – the primary documentation used to prove identity at elections.
Isn’t your proposal likely to cost the Party a lot of time and money?
No! All it requires is this: that a staff member reviews the documentation attached to the application and then confirms with the applicant by email that (s)he has been added to the membership list (or not). This is going to be a “less than five minutes” task in most cases. It requires only a low-level staff position, and probably not even one that is full-time. None of us going to try to argue, we hope, that the Party “cannot afford” this enhancement of its own democracy and security.
The “cost” that we actually cannot afford is the cost of continuing as we are – the ongoing cost to the integrity of our entire operation, and to our democratic system itself.
