The government of Canada has informed Parliament and the
Canadian people that contrary to their stated position before the election -
they will not be pursing changes in how the government is elected. For the next
election and the foreseeable future - we will still be using the " first
past the post" system.
If one only looked at the social media pages for any news -
one could perhaps be forgiven for thinking that the federal Liberals had
just betrayed the Canadian people in a
particularly heinous fashion that would
insure that they would never get elected again. I think there are a number of
points that need to be considered.
One is that anyone who only reads social media pages to find
out what is happening - probably should not be allowed to vote. It is one of
the great obscenities of our times that virtually anything that is published on
line is taken as the gospel truth.
Secondly and more importantly, the federal Liberals only got
39.5 of the popular vote (yes - Trudeau's Liberals got a smaller percentages of
the popular vote than did Trump). I suspect that a relatively small number of
people switched their vote because he promised to change the system. For those
handful of people or for the political pundits who have nothing better to write
about, to suggest that this is a poorly
thought out or cowardly decision does a disservice to the issue. To construct a
political dialogue where one party is wrong and therefore everyone else is
right will only ensure that the issue never gets resolved.
I think those of us who feel a bit let down ( I didn't vote
for that party so perhaps I have no right to feel disappointed) we wanted a
change because we thought that the parties that we support - especially those
who have traditionally been a bit on the near fringes of the left (to consider
the current NDP to be of the left would shame
J.S Woodsworth or Tommy Douglas) would get more seats. What I never thought
about was that perhaps some "fringe" parties on the right side of the
political spectrum would also get more seats. If for example, we had had
proportional representation in the mid 1990s - the Reform party would have sent
far more members to Ottawa than would have the Green party. That is not what I
wanted. What I want is for my party to
have a better chance to have influence while other parties are stopped from any
possibility of controlling the
government's agenda. Unless we can guarantee that outcome, perhaps we should be
careful of what we wish for.
I think it is clear that some changes would be useful. But I
do not think there is a consensus as what those changes should be, nor do I
think it is clear as to how to achieve that consensus. The federal Conservatives
wanted to have a referendum.
Historically Canadians have not done well with such national, provincial
or even city wide votes on a specific topic. A referendum would consume the Canadian Parliament,
the members of that institution and the government as a whole for months -
months where there are many important issues to resolve (e.g. how to deal with
Trump). It is questionable if Canadians would devote enough attention and even
real study of the issues before they voted or if they would just vote along
traditional party lines.
If we are to have a useful conversation about how we want
our votes to count - then somehow we need to divest any attachment to a
specific party or spot on the political spectrum. Even more difficult - we must
be able to accept that other individuals regardless of their allegiances can do
the same thing. That is not going to happen anytime in the near future.
