The Party for Accountability, Competency and Transparency (french: links=no, Parti pour la Responsabilisation, la Compétence et la Transparence, abbreviated as PACT), formerly the Online Party of Canada (french: links=no, Parti Canadien en ligne, abbreviated as OPC), was a Canadian website and federally registered political party founded in October 2010. The party was founded by

Michael Nicula Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...

of Toronto. The party was deregistered by

Elections Canada Elections Canada (french: Élections Canada)The agency operates and brands itself as Elections Canada, its legal title is Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (). is the non-partisan agency responsible for administering Canadian federal electio ...

on July 31, 2016.

Founding and governing principles

The Party for Accountability, Competency and Transparency was a

non-partisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...

political party founded on the principles of

participatory Citizen Participation or Public Participation in social science refers to different mechanisms for the public to express opinions—and ideally exert influence—regarding political, economic, management or other social decisions. Participato ...

e-democracy E-democracy (a combination of the words electronic and democracy), also known as digital democracy or Internet democracy, is the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in political and governance processes. The term is believe ...

where members voted directly on specific issues via the party website and, in return, party officials (candidates) must support the majority position on every issue, regardless of their personal position. To ensure accountability, all PACT representatives wrote up their own Promissory Letter of Resignation before being eligible to run for office. Any PACT representative who votes against the will of the majority could be asked to resign.

Political platform

The Party for Accountability, Competency and Transparency did not have a set agenda. The political platform was a compilation of issue positions from the OPC website, voted from members and grouped by issue category, e.g., economic, healthcare, environment, etc. The key aspect of the platform is the importance given to certain categories; however, particular issues and respective positions are determined solely based on members’ votes.

Membership

Unlike most recognized political parties, all eligible voters in Canada, including members of other federal political parties, are allowed and strongly encouraged to become members of PACT in order to cast votes and comment on issues. In this sense, PACT is more like to a virtual

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

, representing all political stripes, rather than a traditional political party. To ensure that each voting citizen only casts a single vote on each issue, only members' votes count toward the official party position and members are only authenticated once a signed paper form, recognized by

, is submitted to the PACT. Through this process, every PACT member and their respective

electoral district An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

as voting citizens is verifiable through the National Register of Electors, similar to the voter identification process followed by Elections Canada during Federal Elections.

Election results

References

External links