Political parties are large organizations often including hundreds of thousands of members, hundreds of thousands non-members who donate and millions more who vote for their candidates.

The whole purpose of a political party is to have their candidates elected in an election in order to advance their agenda. In this age of instant news-sourcing and social media, being on top of the political game is a herculean task.

Ever wonder where governments get their ideas for legislation?

Ideas come from polls, surveys, the Leader and the team around the Leader, as well as other members of caucus.

But the guiding document for any political party in power is the policy platform. Within the policy platform are all the positions that the party takes on various issues from foreign policy to economic policy to social policy.

How the NHL is to hockey, the National Council is to party politics. 

National Council is where federal decisions are made for the party. National Council gets to create, amend or delete by-laws of the party, they control the party’s budget, the membership fees, the rules for a national leadership race, as well as the date and location of the national policy convention.

Okay, so you’ve decided that you want to join the political party that best matches your political views, but you’re wondering how you do it. Is joining a political party the same for all parties out there?

This is the big time.

The Leader of a political party has an incredible amount of influence and power over the party, the caucus (both in the House of Commons and the Senate), public policy, and even over the members of the party themselves.

Besides being a member of a political party, one of the easiest ways to exert pro-life influence within the party is to become a member of the EDA Board of Directors.