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Every condominium corporation is a democracy and, as they say, democracy can be messy. Yet as Winston Churchill once said eloquently, every other system is worse. We condo owners at least choose who will make decisions for us, and we even have the right of recall when that's needed. Such a degree of electors' rights is admirable; it's even a degree of democracy that's demanded at the provincial and federal levels, but is unlikely to come about.
Condo democracy begins with annual general meetings, at which assembled owners (some attending by proxies given to others) elect the Board of Directors for the coming year. In smaller condo developments a decision can be made by the owners to elect a Board of fewer than the maximum seven Directors, and then hold the vote to choose those six, five, four, or even just three people. The idea is to have a Board only as large as you have active volunteers, so that the quorum is as small a number as possible. Keep in mind that up to a third of condominium Directors can be non-owners, so if you have a long-term tenant who wants to play a role, elect that person, too.
While it rarely occurs, circumstances can arise in which some owners feel that the wrong people were elected to the condo Board, and they're unwilling to wait until the next annual meeting to elect replacements. In that case owners can ask the Board to call a special general meeting for the purpose of holding a new election. If the Board is unwilling to cooperate in calling the needed special general meeting, Alberta's Condo Property Act gives owners (if the Bylaws also allow) the right to call a special meeting regardless of the Board's wishes. More than one Calgary condominium development has done this successfully, although it requires organizing and communicating among the petitioning owners.
A change in leadership can result in a better-run development, a different approach to funding needed capital works, and/or a less dictatorial approach to minor Bylaw violations. Often a "recall" general meeting elects to the Board capable people who had previously not thought it necessary to participate in their condo development's governance. Condominiums, however, are like tiny municipalities; they need leaders and "doers", yet not people with God complexes who impose overly-rigid discipline.
To encourage participation in condominium Boards no seconder is needed for nominations at general meetings. Any owner or non-owner resident can be named by anyone else, or they can simply nominate themselves, and they're on the list of candidates. Usually self-regulation takes over and exactly the right number of volunteers speak up as are needed to fill the Board.
If there's a person who most everyone agrees should be kept off the Board, it's up to the owners to adjust the number of Directors and/or to nominate enough people that an election is required in which the difficult person will not likely be elected. No, we cannot pass a resolution banning a person from the Board or "vote them off". As the Calgary Catholic School Board can tell you, difficult people must simply not be elected, and it's up to voters—condo owners—to do that job.
There are few condo corporations these days that are not well governed. Condominiums have existed in Alberta for more than 40 years, and it's going on 10 years since the new and improved Alberta Condo Property Act came into effect. Good literature from the province, columns such as this and my web site, as well courses by the Canadian Condominium Institute ( I present some of those, too!), have all been educating Alberta and Calgary condo volunteers. It's rarely necessary to say that, "We have the democratic right to govern ourselves badly." In fact condo government is often surprisingly efficient and fair. On the rare occasion when the job just isn't being done by the condo Board, we even have the right of recall to fix it.
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