Blog /We Are Not Americans

April 29, 2011 12:07 +0000  |  Canada Democracy Politics 2

Disclaimer: I am very jetlagged. Please be patient with me.

Canadians, and more specifically the Canadian media have been perpetuating a myth about our electoral system for a while now and it's gotta stop. Newspapers and radio shows are guilty of it, as are party leaders of most stripes: they're treating our electoral process as if we live in the United States.

Here's how it is: We elect parliaments in Canada, not presidents. We elect representatives who sit in the House of Commons who then collectively determine who should speak for Canada: the Prime minister, the first among equals.

Most of us can't vote for Harper, Layton, Ignatieff, or May, but not a day goes by on this campaign that I don't hear some pundit talking about how Ignatieff will do X or Harper will do Y. Both Harper and Layton have been noted for talking like they will personally do something if elected, and though I haven't heard Ignatieff do the same, I wouldn't be surprised.

The fact that in practise, our political system does work as though we elect short-term tyrants doesn't negate the fact that that's not how this system is supposed to work. In fact, I would argue that since we cover campaigns as though it were some sort of horse race between presidential candidates leads not only to an excuse, but an expectation of tyranny once that leader ends up in the Prime Minister's role.

The second myth is that parliamentary elections can be "won" somehow. Jack Layton or Stephen Harper cannot "win" this election as the absurdity of that statement is twofold:(1) as we've already established, any one candidate can only win his or her riding, and (b) winning a minority of seats (or even a majority) does not mean that the remaining parties are somehow not part of our governing process. The House is the authority, not the governing party, and certainly not the Prime Minister.

Ignoring these two truths about our system of government leads to the devaluation of the role of our elected MPs and to support for arguments like Harper's opposition to a coalition. We should either take advantage of our parliamentary system, or simply drop it in favour of (in my opinion) less democratic presidential role. There's really no point on keeping up the premise of parliamentary democracy if people are going to continue to believe that the Prime Minister runs Canada.

Comments

Donna
29 Apr 2011, 1:13 p.m.  | 

We have those exact same problems here. Drives me crazy!

Our current PM got the job through the party deciding they'd rather have her (the previous PM is now the foreign minister, which actually suits his skill set much better). Yes, they can do that, because that's how the system works. It doesn't matter how much you whinge about it and say you didn't vote for her - you didn't vote for him either, you dumbarse!

The PM is only the leader of the party and the party can and do change their minds. And after the last election, they're only still The Government because they have an agreement with some independents - neither major party "won". But in the end, it doesn't really matter. This is how it's supposed to work.
But people were calling for another election! Saying that we should have a clear winner! WTF were they expecting to happen if we did that anyway?! We have compulsory voting here - so everyone has already had their say, do they really think people will change their minds 'just because'? Aaargh!

However, we also have the added issue that the major parties trick people into believing that you have to vote for a major party because otherwise your vote is wasted. While that may be the case in America ("don't split the vote!"), that is simply not true here; we have preferential voting, so if your first choice doesn't get elected your vote transfers to your next choice. You can vote for whoever you want, in whatever order you want. We are not in America!

Yes, I know this ramble got long. Can you believe I just deleted a large chunk of rant and it's still this long? Luckily the movie I was watching just finished (Bill & Ted, man!) and so it is sleep time and I will stop now :)

noreen
29 Apr 2011, 7:51 p.m.  | 

the way harper does it... you'd think he's trying to run canada as a pseudo president.

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