The United States is in constitutional chaos. In Canada, we could soon find ourselves in similar circumstances. Max Fawcett writes:
It’s been clear for some time now that when faced with a choice between democracy and power, Republicans in the United States will almost always opt for the latter. It’s why their elected officials at the state level continue to aggressively gerrymander congressional districts in order to favour their candidates, why their elected senators hold up Democratic nominees for the Supreme Court while rushing theirs through, and why so many of them tried to pretend the 2020 presidential election had been stolen — while actually trying to steal it themselves.
For years, Republicans have been trying to establish minority rule:
Now, that anti-democratic strain of Trumpism is starting to show itself north of the border, albeit in an appropriately Canadian way.
Recent polls put Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party of Canada well ahead of the governing Liberals, but none of them show a path to a majority government. Instead, if he wins — and that’s far from certain given Justin Trudeau’s obvious gift for campaigning — it’ll take the form of a plurality of seats, one that will require Poilievre to find a legislative partner willing to support him. That won’t be the New Democrats, for any number of reasons, and it’s hard to imagine the Bloc Québécois siding consistently with the CPC if the combined Liberal-NDP seat count is higher. In other words, there’s every possibility Poilievre could win the most seats in the next election and not become the next prime minister.
This is, by the way, an entirely acceptable — if unusual — outcome in our political system. The party that governs in a parliamentary democracy is the one that can command the confidence of Parliament (or the legislature at the provincial level), and we’ve seen situations where the party with the highest number of seats isn’t the one calling the shots. In 1985, David Peterson’s Ontario Liberals won four fewer seats than the long-governing Tories but formed a coalition with Bob Rae’s NDP to force it from power. In 1987, the Peterson Liberals were rewarded with a crushing majority win. More recently there was John Horgan's NDP, which won fewer seats than Christy Clark's BC Liberals but reached an agreement with the BC Green Party that allowed it to govern. Voters there also rewarded Horgan with a big majority in the next election.
But, if that situation occurs, expect Mr. Poilievre to claim that the government is illegitimate -- which, of course, would be a lie:
There is nothing in Canada’s Constitution or its political conventions that suggests the party with the most seats should automatically be the one that governs. Indeed, as Globe and Mail columnist Doug Saunders noted, it’s progressives who have been disenfranchised by Canada’s first-past-the-post system and its habit of producing false majorities. “In every election since the 1980s, 60% have voted for a left-leaning party. Yet right-facing parties have governed half the time because the liberal/left parties have a tribal resistance to governing together.”
Now is the time for Canadians to truly understand how their political system works.
Image: CHEK News
9 comments:
"Now is the time for Canadians to truly understand how their political system works." I completely agree, Owen, but given the abysmal level of the average Canadian's awareness, I am not hopeful this can be achieved.
My memory isn’t the best anymore but I seem to recall PM Harper proroguing parliament to avoid a coalition of Liberals, NDP and Bloc members ganging up on his minority status back in late 2000s. I do remember too Harper calling on all good Conservatives across the country to do everything possible to prevent that coalition from getting power and installing the ridiculous Stéphane Dion and his hated green agenda into the PM office. I think he even called the coalition being fomented unconstitutional at the time. In any case, that normal aspect of a parliamentary system was resisted by the majority of elected members.Bigly!
On the US front, it ii pretty easy to agree that Republicans have many times used various questionable methods to stay in power. However, one shouldn’t really come to the conclusion that party is the only one to so. In their two party system, the other other side has very dirty hands too. Hunter Biden laptop perhaps? Et alii! Though I suppose the Democrats might still be clinging to the fairy tale the laptop was nothing a clever Russian fabrication and the subsequent coverups were necessary to protect democracy.
One thing is for sure, we in Canada are in for some very interesting political times in the months heading to the next election in the US along with the ongoing situation in Europe, the BRICs vs US dollar hegemony business and of course the growing “what to do about China” affair. All this must keep “Lil’ Kim” wondering what he could do to get back his front page news status. Mac
"the liberal/left parties have a tribal resistance to governing together.”"
This might have made some sense back in the day when Tommy Douglas was doing the yeoman's work of pulling the Overton window to the left or the even when the nascent Green party was forming before Lizzie May made sure the Greenies are equally powerless and irrelevant.
Today, their main function is to maintain the illusion of democratic choice.
The most substantive differences between these bozos today are the branding colours.
The differences are a little more significant, PoV.
I share your skepticism, Lorne -- which simply proves the truth of the old saw. We get the government we deserve.
There is one big difference between Harper's and Poilievre's situations, Mac. Harper was prime minister before the election was called. He possessed the levers to prorogue Parliament. Poilievre is in no such situation.
I think Mr Fawcett can rest assured that the average Canadian is quite capable of understanding our parliamentary system on their own. He might be surprised to learn that our citizenry doesn't need to spoken down to, or treated condescendingly. They know what they want, notwithstanding his smug and sanctimonious attitude. TB
I'm not so sure, TB. I share Lorne's skepticism. The truckers who showed up on Parliament Hill seemed unaware of how our government functions.
Politics these days is riddled with false equivalents, perfect. There's that old saw about apples and oranges. But, unfortunately, that difference goes unnoticed.
Post a Comment