P.E.I. PC Party to condense leadership convention to one evening
Party president says new approach keeps 'the best of a convention'
The P.E.I. PC Party is shortening its typical day-long leadership selection vote, but the party's president promises that members will have plenty of opportunities to meet the candidates and to vote as the process unfolds.
"We're doing it a little bit different this time," Pat Banks told CBC's Island Morning on Tuesday.
Instead of holding its leadership convention in Brudenell, P.E.I., over a full Saturday, the party will select its leader on a Friday evening, Oct. 20, then hold its annual general meeting the next day.
Banks said the new process builds on one started in 2015, when the previous leadership convention included early voting, mail-in balloting and a preferential ballot.
'The best of a convention'
The advance voting meant that "voting at the actual convention was not that big," he said.
Closely contested leadership conventions can be divisive events for parties as political plots unfold on the convention floor, but Banks said that wasn't an influence on the new format.
He also said he wasn't concerned having a shorter event would drain some of the energy from the event.
"We are actually probably taking the best of a convention, which is the end part, where you have a few speeches and the announcement, and I think that itself will draw people down just to find out who the new leader's going to be," he said.
'We wanted to be ready'
Nominations open April 3.
The party is looking to avoid the situation it found itself in early in 2015, when it tried to put off choosing a new leader until the eve of the next provincial election, only to have government trigger the election early. This time they should have 18 months to prepare for a vote.
"We wanted to be ready," Banks said. "Last time the election was called early. Our new leader didn't have time to get out and get known."
The party, which found itself in debt after the 2015 election, is ahead of its financial targets, he said.
"We're looking to have the debt paid off next year and we are of course doing ongoing fundraising," Banks said.
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With files from Island Morning and Kerry Campbell