The Changing Leadership Electorate: An Examination of Participants in the 1992 Alberta Conservative Leadership Election

This article examines the 1992 Progressive Conservative leadership election in Alberta, Canada, and assesses the degree to which this universal ballot produced a leadership electorate distinctive from that enfranchised at the previous convention. The universal ballot electorate possessed a limited background in the party, was not heavily involved in the campaign but included a much higher proportion of women and substantially more elderly voters. Participation remained essentially a middle-class endeavour. Although many of the concerns raised by critics of the universal ballot are confirmed by the Alberta experiment, there are positive features to the Alberta model and the move to universal balloting is not without its merits.