Coalitions do little real governing

Here in B.C., campaigns matter when it comes to elections. A lot of energy is put into creating the party platforms that inform campaigns. For good reason — they are key sources of voter information.

The NDP platform in the last election included a promise for a referendum on proportional representation, and the Green platform included a promise to “introduce proportional representation.” Two million people voted in the election based, in part, on those promises.

In contrast, it was only 12 people who huddled behind closed doors and decided the outcome of that election. Those back-door discussions resulted in a minority NDP government supported by the B.C. Greens. It put a lie to the PR argument that your individual vote counts more under this foreign system. After the last election, each of the three political parties that won seats took four people into secret negotiations for power. Two on each team were newly elected or re-elected MLAs. The other two were backroom players.

B.C. voters weren’t in the room and their voices were not heard.

After they had hashed out their power-sharing deal, the eight political agents representing the NDP and the Green party didn’t even put it to their party membership for a vote, let alone to the general public. Your opinion and your vote was not sought, nor did it count.

The NDP platform was 105 pages long and contained 277 promises. The Green party platform was 96 pages and contained 126 policy commitments. The agreement between the NDP and Greens that created the current government and outlines its policy agenda is only nine pages long. PR is the first item of substance in that agreement. Green party leader Andrew Weaver was asked about promises made by his partners, the NDP, after signing his backroom deal. His response was that “their election commitments are irrelevant now.” He dismissed the promises made to voters in favour of a deal to grant him a taste of power.

But this is the result you can expect under PR. You will get to vote for a party and its promises because you believe in the party and its election platform, and then after the election backroom players decide what they can trade away as they craft a power-sharing agreement among these elites and insiders.

Get used to it if we move to PR. In Germany, the various parties took six months of backroom negotiations to reach an agreement. Already the coalition it formed is on the brink of collapse with Chancellor Angela Merkel announcing her departure and another election, just a little over a year since the last, is a very real possibility.

The Green-NDP agreement covers about nine areas. What of the myriad other commitments found in the party platforms? No common ground, so it appears they were left out. Tough choices set aside, sent out for consultation or left to the public service to muddle through.

So Green voters didn’t stop Site C, they didn’t stop the speculation tax and they didn’t stop union-only government projects.

This is the inherent nature of coalition governments and is our future under PR. Endless coalition governments spending more time negotiating power than governing.

Those who favour proportional representation seem to think that handing power to backroom influence brokers makes the system fairer. You won’t vote on the deals they make or on what principles get compromised and which priorities are shunted aside.

The alternative is big-tent parties that do the deal-making before the election. Then your vote counts. That is what First Past the Post does. Simple, stable and successful.

Mike Pearce is a retired lawyer and former mayor of Penticton.