Justin Trudeau pushing for new membership rules for Liberal Party of Canada

Justin Trudeau is pushing a proposed new constitution for the Liberal Party of Canada aimed at transforming the federal party from an exclusive club into a wide-open political movement.

The proposal, adopted Saturday by the party's national boardduring a three-hour meeting with the prime minister in Halifax,would do away entirely with the long-held principle that onlydues-paying, card-carrying members are entitled to take part inparty activities.

Indeed, there would no longer be any party members. Instead,anyone willing to register with the party for free would beeligible to participate in policy development, nomination ofcandidates, party conventions and the selection of future leaders.

The proposal builds on a change adopted by Liberals four yearsago, when they agreed to let anyone willing to sign up for free as aparty supporter vote in leadership contests.

Constitutionon agenda forspring convention

Trudeau was the first leader elected under the new process, whichsaw some 300,000 people sign up as supporters.

"We've tried the supporter system and it was a huge success,"party president Anna Gainey said in an interview.

"I believe that as we continue to open up and modernize and havemore of a movement than a traditional political party, that this isa natural progression of that."

Liberals will be asked to approve the proposed new constitution at the party's national convention in May.

While the Liberals look to further open up their party to allcomers, the Conservatives are going in the opposite direction.

Forthe current Tory leadership contest, only those who've been partymembers for six months will be eligible to vote, and the membershipfee has been hiked to $25.

Each member must pay by cheque or creditcard in a bid to prevent leadership campaigns from paying for masssign-ups of new members.

"That is a sharp contrast," Gainey said.

'Breaking with our own traditions'

Without going into details of the proposed changes, Trudeau championed the need for a constitutional overhaul during a speech Saturday to the Nova Scotia wing of the Liberal party.

"We need to be courageous and we need to show, once again, thatthe Liberal party is not afraid to challenge the status quo, even ifit means breaking with our own traditions," he said.

"Canadians are counting on us to keep building, modernizing andopening up our movement. We can't let them down."

The proposed new constitution would be shorter than the current81-page document and give more flexibility to the national board,which includes elected riding presidents from across the country, toadapt and modernize party procedures in a timely way.

That includes its cumbersome policy development process.

18 different constitutions

Currently, the constitution stipulates that policy resolutions areto be put forward by riding associations for consideration at annualgeneral meetings of the various provincial and territorial wings ofthe party.

Priority resolutions chosen at those meetings are thendebated and voted on at the national party's biennial conventions.

The process is "inflexible, it is not evergreen, it does notrespond to the pace of life in the digital age," said Gainey.

The new constitution would allow flexibility to use technology toengage all registered Liberals in policy development betweennational conventions, reflecting "the electoral cycle that we're inand the environment we're in and the issues that matter at thetime," she added.

The proposal would also scrap the 18 different constitutions thatare currently in play, with the party's provincial and territorialassociations and various commissions (youth, women, seniors,indigenous Liberals) each having their own guiding document.

Thoseassociations and commissions would continue to exist but there wouldbe only one national constitution for the entire party.

Reassuring wings of party

The various wings of the party have always jealously guardedtheir turf and Trudeau sought to reassure them Saturday that theproposed changes "will actually strengthen and make more resilientthe close relationship between the federal party and regionalpartners.

Trudeau has led the push for constitutional change, striking aworking group earlier this year charged with "starting from scratchto redesign this party from the ground up," as he put it in anemail missive sent to all party members and supporters.

He asked Liberals to complete a survey, which the party says some2,100 people did, and which showed overwhelming support for thekinds of changes now being proposed.

When Liberals agreed four years ago to let supporters vote inleadership contests, they balked at similarly opening up the processfor nominating candidates to run for the party in elections. Manyworried that a wide-open nomination process at the riding levelwould be too easy to manipulate by political opponents.

Doing away with exclusive privileges

But Gainey said rank and file Liberals, having seen the benefitsof opening up the leadership process, are now behind the idea ofdoing away with exclusive privileges for paid members altogether.

She argued that the party has wasted a lot of time and energyrenewing memberships every year and going through the cumbersomeriding-by-riding process of electing delegates to attend partyconventions, which are never filled to capacity.

"Ultimately, I believe a convention is something that should beopen to anyone who's interested as a Liberal who wants toparticipate," she said.

"The exercise and the resource that we get sucked into doing(for) these delegate selection meetings, for example, is one exampleof where we're slowing ourselves down and it's not helping us."