About six weeks before the NDP was to hold their March 2012 leadership convention and reveal who would succeed Jack Layton, they had to change venues — from Toronto’s Allstream Centre to the larger Metro Toronto Convention Centre, which could hold 40 per cent more people.

“We’re on line for this to be, far and away, the biggest NDP convention we’ve ever had,” party spokeswoman Sally Housser told the Canadian Press in February 2012. “People are excited about it. This is one of the most important moments in the party’s history coming up at the end of March and people want to be a part of it.”

After three rounds of balloting trimmed the seven-candidate list down to two, Tom Mulcair ultimately emerged the victor on March 24.

As Broken Social Scene’s instrumental “Meet me in the Basement” blared on the convention floor in anticipation of Mulcair’s speech, teary-eyed Peggy Nash supporters could still be seen holding up her signs and a number of Brian Topp’s looked bitterly disappointed, but there was also, undeniably, that enthusiastic energy Housser promised.

The party has since become convinced, however, that there’s a better way to pick a leader.

On Wednesday, they announced in a press release that their national council had ratified new rules governing how Tom Mulcair’s successor will be elected, “replacing the traditional leadership Convention with a month-long series of run-off contests.”

At the very least, it will be different.

As in 2012, there will again be an all-candidates’ showcase. But rather than holding it the night before the results are announced, it will take place before voting begins.

From there, as many as five rounds of preferential ballot voting spread throughout October 2017 will follow, with the leader selected no later than October 29.

“Each ballot’s results will be announced in a series of mini-conventions at different locations across the country as the process unfolds,” a party press released informed.

“This will allow for greater flexibility in voting, and increased participation by the members. It will have the additional benefit of allowing for the excitement and momentum of the race to build over a longer period of time.”

The party president, Marit Stiles, added in the release that the goal was to come up with innovative rules to make the race engaging and maximize the participation of members, while also ensuring the race is fair and transparent.

Former Ottawa Centre NDP MP Paul Dewar, who ran for the leadership in 2012, sees both improvements and possible downsides to the new approach.

There was a “buzz” at the Toronto Convention Centre in 2012, he said. But there was also major flaw in the process: the majority of votes had already been cast before the convention started.

As a result, the suspense was somewhat contrived.

“We felt really good about our presentation (at the candidates’ showcase) at the convention, as did a lot of people, but it really didn’t matter because most people had already voted,” he said.

“The event itself was fine for the people who were there, but it really, in the end, didn’t matter. It was a media piece. In terms of the actual result, and people participating and swaying people with speeches and all that traditional stuff — (the showcase) really mattered not.”

That won’t be repeated in 2017, because the leadership showcase will be held before voting begins in September. And Dewar sees that as a positive development.

Under the new format, however, in which the results of each ballot are announced in “mini-conventions” across the country, it could prove difficult to predict when the next leader will be chosen.

And that could be a problem.

If it goes as the party’s national council hopes, media and party member interest will be sustained through as many as five result announcements over five weekends in October.

But there could be a scenario in which a candidate gets the necessary 50 per cent +1 of the vote on the first ballot, for example, and a final result that’s supposed to galvanize ends up being anticlimactic.

“I don’t how that would work. That’s something they’re going to have to keep an eye on, to make sure there is that energy and how to deal with that scenario, right? Get to the end, and it’s like, ‘Ok, well, it’s kind of done,” Dewar said.

Then there’s the money issue.

The excitement that comes with a leadership convention also comes with a substantial cost, and the party isn’t exactly flush at the moment.

“Having it at the Toronto Convention Centre, or anywhere else for that matter, costs a lot of dough. It’s about where you spend you money. Obviously, at this point, the party is trying to raise money. And where you spend it is important,” Dewar said.

On that subjct, Karine Fortin, the party’s deputy national director, sent a blunt fundraising email to supporters on Wednesday with the subject: “I won’t sugarcoat it.”

“In just eight days, we’ll close the books on the second fundraising quarter of 2016. Here’s the truth: we’re still short of what we need for the months to come,” she wrote.

It was followed by one on Thursday from the party’s digital director, Mallory Daley.

“We’re about to launch a leadership race that will energize our party and strengthen progressive politics in Canada, and we can’t let a lack of resources hold us back,” she wrote.