Avalon

The Atlantica Party wishes all of our members, supporters and subscribers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We will pick up our commentaries in the first week of January.

“Every government degenerates … “ – Thomas Jefferson

It is not clear who the government should be in Canada, the Conservatives or a NDP+Liberal coalition. This is odd and cannot be a good thing.

Canada uses the Westminster Model of governance both federally and provincially. This model evolved under the Tory (Conservative) and Whig (Liberal) parties during the late 17th to the mid-20th centuries. After an election one party would have a majority in the house so it would be asked to form the government, the minority party formed the Official Opposition. As long as the majority held the confidence of the house it held office. Confidence would be tested on major bills, typically money bills like a budget. If a confidence bill was lost an election was called to establish a new majority party with fresh confidence.

As an ad hoc arrangement this worked moderately well in Canada until 1958 when a third party was created, the NDP. Today we have four parties and more are probably on the way, the Greens for instance. Just as First-Past-The-Post voting works well with two parties but breaks down as the number of parties increases so too does the notion of majority break down as more parties are added to the mix. After the last election the Conservatives have the most seats but not a majority, should they be the government? Or if a coalition can be formed for a number of months should they be the government? If so, what happens when the coalition breaks down? Election? Or a new coalition?

With the old model broken is there a better way for us citizens to pick our federal and provincial governments?

“Every government degenerates … “ – Thomas Jefferson

It is not clear who should lead this country, the Conservatives or an opposition coalition. During this debate you hear the claim that Canadians decided their government during the last election, isn’t that what elections are for?

But whom did Canadians choose to govern? Harper says himself but his opponents say only one in four Canadians voted for him yet a Liberal+NDP combination does not have the support of one in two voters. We have an electoral system that produces muddles like this rather than clear results.

When Canadians vote are they voting only for their representative? Are they picking a Prime Minister? Or are they indicating a preference for a party? Or perhaps it is a mix of the three. We just don’t know and so the result is open to political manipulation over the heads of citizens. Will our leader be Harper, Dion, perhaps Layton or as yet some unspecified future Liberal Leader? And of course while all of this is going on government is paralyzed.

It is time for a reformed electoral system where citizens directly elect their Prime Minister.