I get the
Empire Loyalist thing. The way we go about running our society is firmly
anchored in our colonial past. Canada is a proud member of the
British Empire. Well, the world has changed a lot since the demise of our
historical progenitor. The UK is no longer a world power. It no
longer matters what Britain thinks or does within the existing global
order.
As a
result, we are on are own. We have to be making on our own decisions and
we should do so with a decision making process that is made in Canada, a Canada
that exists and preferably thrives in the twenty-first century.
As a
former colony we should know a thing or two about wealth extraction,
particularly our natural resources, a process carried on principally for the
benefit of those who do not reside here. Sure, some of the
wealth does trickle down, but for the most part, the most important economic
activity centered on the depletion of our natural
resources (oil, minerals, and forestry products) creates wealth
disproportionately for the directors of foreign corporate entities.
In other words, the lion's share of the profits are funneled
offshore. It's been that way since the Hudson Bay Company and the
Canadian Pacific Railway Company planted their corporate banners on Canadian
soil and opened the land up for business.
Related Blog Post
In
order to keep the natives from getting restless (I'm talking about the
millions of people who came here as economic refugees and their
descendants and not the First Nations Peoples since they were taken care of by
all together different and by far more cruel means) they are allowed to
participate marginally in the electoral process that
installs another corporate entity, otherwise known as a political
party, that administers the affairs of the Dominion.
Importantly,
it must be kept in mind that this process has never
been democratic. Canada is not a democracy. How could it
be democratic if it inherited its political institutions from the UK,
which still to this day has a hereditary monarchy, no written
constitution, and a bicameral parliament in which the upper house is still
called, get this, THE HOUSE OF LORDS! Rule Britannia.
In
keeping with corporate rule, a political party is most definitely a
corporate entity. Its leader is the chief executive officer: he signs the
papers of all those who would be candidates; if he forms a government, he
chooses who will be his cabinet ministers; he appoints people to the
Senate; he names judges to the Supreme Court; hell, he can unilaterally
declare war if he wants to. With such concentration of political power in
his hands, small wonder that in reality the federal government in Canada is run out of the Prime
Minister's Office.
At first
glance, it may appear that Canadians are electing those people who will
represent them in Parliament. In reality, however, since all those who
are elected to Parliament vote as they are told to vote by the party almost all
of the time, what they are really doing is participating in the process which
will see the governance function vested with the citizenry transferred to the
Prime Minister, who for the most part becomes Canada's elected
monarch, assuming the Crown's Royal Prerogative while governing the land.
As a
result, a general election in Canada is in fact a contest to see which of
the political parties will win "the contract" to
administer the state. Thereafter, having effectively transferred their
sovereignty until whenever the Prime Minister calls the next election,
(yes there is a law that stipulates that general elections are supposed to
take place every four years, but because of the Prime Minister's
Royal Prerogative, he is not obliged to abide by it) Canadians then stand
on the sidelines and watch how power is wielded by the man to which the
contract was awarded.
Importantly,
since the object of the exercise is to outsource the governance function and
not to democratically elect the people's representatives, it matters
little that the political party that wins the contract rarely has the support
of the majority of the electorate. Most often, only forty percent of the
votes cast is sufficient to award the contract to a single political
party. Yes, that does mean with a participation rate of about 60% (the
eligible voters that actually cast a ballot) in a general election, the
political party that has been chosen to run the country in reality does so with
the support of less than 25% of those who are eligible to vote.
As you
can imagine, such institutional practices have democrats in Canada wringing
their hands and tearing out their hair in disgust. Yet, Canadians seem to
be quite content with the how the voting system performs its function: all four
referendums that were held to change the first-past-the-post method at the
provincial level did not gain sufficient support to go ahead and make the
change.
I do not
believe that is the unwavering respect for the Westminster parliamentary system
that prevents Canadians from abandoning what is truly an outdated political
institution. Instead, I think the majority of Canadians prefer to be
called upon only once every three to five years to make a political decision.
Let someone else sweat it out while we concentrate our efforts on
our individual concerns. If things get really bad, we can
simply award the governance contract to another competitor. That way
we really don't have to keep on top of things like concerned citizens in other
countries that enjoy democratic rule. Who's got the time?
That
being said, regardless of the Canadian desire to cede the political
decision making to someone else, the present political landscape no
longer lends itself to false-majority rule (plurality of seats won in
Parliament). Five out the six Parliaments have resulted in minority
governments. Moreover, it now appears that each of the three contenders
for the crown have more or less the same support, perhaps two or three percentage
points more for the leading party than the third party in the contest, well
within the margin of error. Finally, it could easily happen that the
party that receives less of the popular vote than one of the others will form
the next government because of the vagaries of the first-past-the-post voting
system.
Perhaps,
it is time Canada modernized its political institutions, beginning with the
voting system. Unlike Senate reform, it is entirely doable, no constitutional amendment needed. Indeed,
both the Liberals and the New Democrats have stated that if elected, this
general election will be the last to be held under first-past-the-post.
What
remains to be seen is what type of voting system will replace the present
one. The New Democrats propose a proportional system that would make each
and every vote an effective vote. In such a system Canada would be moving
to a more consensual form of government. The Liberals, on the other hand,
favor the alternative vote, which will keep Canada in a
majoritarian/authoritarian system of government, much like Australia, which
uses the alternative vote for its lower house, but elects its upper house with
a form of proportional representation.
Could
this be the last Canadian general election held under
first-past-the-post?
I bloody
well hope so!!!
