A
parachute candidate is a
candidate which a
political party recruits to run in an
electoral district for any of several reasons:
- that party has no organization in that district
- the organization is not willing to run a candidate - some parties refuse to run one if the local constituency will not
- the party leader wishes someone to be available for a cabinet? position
- the candidate lives nearby and/or used to live in the prior electoral district before it changed
[+] background
During the
Canadian federal election, 2006,
Stephen Harper proposed to ban all such candidates, and to require all candidates to live within a district. This is thought to be problematic for several reasons, among them:
- the extreme reliance of the Green Party of Canada on such candidates in 2004 and 2006 - in the latter five of the seven GPC candidates in Newfoundland and Labrador? were actually from Nova Scotia - see Lori-Ann Martino
- the historical use of the technique by party leaders to quick gain access to an open seat
- the inequity of rich candidates being able to rent homes in a district, which poorer ones could not do
- without bioregional democracy electoral district border?s often change and people who lived in a riding may find that they do not, by surprise; what's worse these changes are very politically manipulated - see gerrymandering?
issue statement
Under what circumstances, if any, should anyone be permitted to run to represent an
electoral district or municipal ward
? in which they do not actually live at the time?
Every candidate must live in the actual riding with its present boundaries.
argument for: to represent people, you must be exposed to the same risks
argument against: Canadian electoral borders often change.
[+] position: only when a boundary changes and the candidate is incumbent
[+] position: only with local party permission
The residents of the district must be free to choose any
representative that they desire.
Given their power over political party funds
? a
party leader, have used the leverage of these funds to force local candidates out and override local sentiments in favour of candidates from another party, or running no candidate due to vote split
?ting problems.
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