Parachuted into Parliament: Candidate Nomination, Appointed Candidates, and Legislative Roles in Canada

Abstract

Does a candidate's pathway to parliament affect subsequent legislative roles and behavior? Party candidate nomination processes in Canada are very decentralized, with responsibility for candidate selection allocated to the local constituency associations. However, candidates may also secure a nomination by being “parachuted” into a constituency: appointed by the party leader as the candidate who will stand for the party in the general election. This practice is most common in the Liberal Party of Canada, and as such we study this party's candidates in the six most recent elections (between 1993 and 2008) in order to explore both (a) the characteristics of parachuted and locally nominated MPs; and (b) the legislative consequences of parachuting candidates into constituencies. We find that party leaders are using the power of appointment to recruit both star candidates and women into the House of Commons, but that appointed candidates from each of these groups serve very different roles in Parliament. We find a strong link between nomination method and subsequent legislative roles and activities: parachuted candidates are much more likely to serve in high-profile legislative positions while locally nominated candidates are more likely to engage in low-profile legislative activities. The process by which candidates come to stand for election, we argue, directly affects the nature of representation by Members of Parliament in the legislature, and has implications for the study of candidate nomination and legislative roles in parties in other democracies.