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The Problem With The Way We Elect A Prime Minister
And How We Can Fix It
In Parliamentary Democracies, the people vote for a member of parliament in their riding (Constituency). A government is formed by the single largest party or a party that can form a stable coalition. The Prime minister is the leader of said party or coalition. While the nature of the election and the exact way the people vote (First past the post vs a ranked ballot vs other methods) is a popular debate topic; the leadership race (the process by which a Prime Ministerial candidate is chosen by a party) is generally discussed less often, sometimes only when a major leadership race is underway (for example: Boris Johnson’s recent conservative leadership race).
The Problem With Leadership Elections Now
Living in Canada, a lot of emphasis is placed on the current leadership race for the Conservative Party of Canada. In Canada (similar to other parliamentary democracies such as UK, Australia and Israel) the leadership races for all parties occur in a similar fashion. A party leadership race occurs when the previous leader leaves office for retirement, resigns due to an election loss, or like the current conservative party leader, Andrew Sheer, a scandal and subsequent election loss. This period spent in office is not defined. For example William Lyon…
