The peaceful handing over of the reins of government is an important symbol of
democracy and is arguably the distinctive feature of representative government. Often
taken for granted in democratic jurisdictions, peaceful transition is one of the most
important elements in the ongoing evolution of modern politics. Throughout history
there have been varying types and various levels of success of transitions of power,
depending on the circumstance and political environment applicable to each case.
In Canada, one type of transition has remained largely unstudied - that in which a new
leader takes over government by succeeding someone from his/her own political party -
generally referred to as an intra-party transition. This is because intra-party transitions
have traditionally been seen as less dramatic and therefore less noteworthy than
transitions that include a change from one party to another. Furthermore, intra-party
transitions typically occur near the end of a political cycle and are therefore closely
followed by a general election. If the new intra-party leader loses the subsequent
election, that leader's transition is seen as less noteworthy. In fact, in recent Canadian
history, at both the provincial and federal level, there have been only two significant
occasions in which intra-party leaders have come from behind to successfully defend
their party's right to govern in the next general election: Ralph Klein in Alberta in 1993
and Glen Clark in British Columbia in 1996.
This study analyzes all provincial intra-party transitions from 1960 to the present. From
this analysis, a continuum has been formed from which these transitions will be assessed
as to their relative degree of success or failure. It is argued here that the Clark and Klein
intra-party transitions represent a specific "pod" or "cluster" within this continuum and as
a result, deserve specific analysis. O f both, the principal question asked is: why, in the
face of significant obstacles and contrary to historical precedent, did these transitions
succeed? Further questions include; how can this success be defined and measured, what
factors led to this success, were these cases equally successful and if not, why?
Ultimately these two successful transitions are compared to one of the most unsuccessful
intra-party transitions in modern Canadian history, that being the succession of Frank
Miller from Bill Davis in Ontario in 1984.
The final section of this study involves a test of key exogenous and endogenous variables
that may or may not impact the success or failure of these three intra-party transition case
studies. Particular attention will be paid to the ability of these new leaders to effectively
distance themselves from their predecessors and how quickly and effectively they were
able to put their own 'stamp' or 'footprint' on their respective new governments. In the
end, it is hoped that these three case studies will provide important lessons and
prescriptive insights not only for students of parliamentary politics and public
administration but for practitioners and future leaders as well.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/11106 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Brooks, Michael Sheldon |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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