AGM and Provincial Convention Delegate Selection Meeting
Your Toronto Centre NDP is pleased to invite you to an important membership meeting on Saturday, March 4 from 2:30 - 5:00 pm. The meeting will be held at the OPSEU Hall at 31 Wellesley St E. This is an accessible space. Please plan to arrive at 2:30 to confirm your membership and receive your voting cards so we may begin promptly at 3:00 pm.
This meeting will serve as the Riding Association Annual General Meeting. As the provincial and federal riding borders are now effectively the same, the riding association will revert to its previous model with a single executive organizing at both provincial and federal levels. To check the new boundaries and to see where your home falls, see this map from Elections Ontario. At the AGM, a new executive will be elected. See below for a list of executive positions and information on how to express interest.
This meeting will also include Provincial Convention delegate selection and riding endorsement of resolutions. Provincial Convention will be held in Toronto April 21 - 23, 2017 and is an important event for our membership to influence ONDP policy.
The event can also be found on Facebook.
Membership
To participate in the AGM, to stand as Convention delegate and to bring forward resolutions to the Riding Association General Meeting, you must be a member in good standing of the Toronto Centre NDP. Memberships will be available at the door for new and renewing members and payable by cash, credit card, or cheque. If you have recently moved to Toronto Centre and your membership is with another Riding Association, or if you have recently joined or renewed online, please bring your card or copy of your renewal email. If you live outside the boundaries of Toronto Centre, but would like have your membership moved to Toronto Centre, please bring proof of membership as well.
Executive Positions
The Riding Association will elect to its joint federal provincial executive the following positions:
President (Federal)
President (Provincial)
Recording Secretary
Chief Financial Officer (Federal)
Chief Financial Officer (Provincial)
Membership Organizer
Youth Officer
Women’s Representative
Disability Rights Committee Representative
Fundraising Director
Aboriginal Liaison
LGBT Liaison
Ethnocultural Liaison
Labour Liaison
Social Convenor
Communications Director
Voter Contact Organizer
Three Provincial Council Delegates (not the same as Convention delegates!)
Two (or more) Members at Large
Any member of the NDP in good standing can stand for election to the Executive. As you can see, the list of positions is quite lengthy and not all are filled every year. Gender parity is an important principle for the Riding Association in choosing an executive, as is attention to representation from the many diverse communities in our Riding. If you would like to express your interest in standing for election prior to the meeting, would like to stand for a position but cannot attend the meeting, or if you have questions about what executive positions involve in terms of time and responsibility, please email to [email protected] . Nominations, including self-nominations, will be taken from the floor at the meeting. For contested positions, each candidate will have two minutes to address the membership prior to the vote.
Provincial Convention Delegation
Toronto Centre has been allocated eleven delegate positions for Provincial Convention in April. Gender parity again applies. For individuals wishing to attend convention, but not selected as delegates from Toronto Centre, the Ontario NDP maintains a waitlist. It is rarely the case that an individual who wishes to attend a Convention is not able to. Should delegate positions be contested, each candidate will be given two minutes to address the membership prior to voting.
Provincial Convention Resolutions
Riding Associations can endorse and submit policy resolutions for consideration of the Convention. These resolutions shape the official policies of the Ontario NDP and are a way for the membership to inform party positions. If you are intending to bring forward a resolution to the Toronto Centre General Meeting, please email it in advance to [email protected].
The rules which govern submission of resolutions to the Convention apply to the General Meeting as well. These are, namely, to include a title to the resolution and to identify a policy grouping for the resolution (Agriculture and Rural Affairs; Arts, Culture and Communications; Education; Economics; Electoral Reform; Environment, Energy and Natural Resources; Health; Housing; Justice, Human Rights, Law Enforcement and Equality; Labour; Aboriginal Rights, Bilingualism and Multiculturalism; Social Policy; Transportation; Urban Affairs; Internal Affairs and Party Constitution).
Importantly, resolutions should be kept to under 200 words. Please identify on your resolution submission whether your resolution is being submitted to other riding associations. Note that only the operative clauses of the resolutions will be debated at the General Meeting.
Please submit all resolutions to [email protected] by February 25, 2017.