You want change? Ask the people
Government reform: Changes to both our voting system and the Senate should be considered
On Monday, Tory MP Pierre Poilievre announced a reelected Conservative government would pass a law to prevent any future government from changing the voting system without a referendum.
The NDP wants to bring in proportional representation, electing some MPs from party lists to make the House of Commons more representative.
The Liberals want ranked ballots — where second choices are counted in — but say they would have a parliamentary committee consider both ideas. Neither party has promised a referendum on the change, and the Conservatives think that’s bad.
“Both Justin Trudeau and the NDP say they will revolutionize how Canadians elect their government and neither is willing to give the Canadians a say in the matter,” Poilievre said.
Two intellectuals, writing in Next City magazine, explained why Poilievre is saying that.
“It is seldom in the short-term interest of the party in power to carry out electoral reform; by definition, the system worked admirably for those now in power and changing the system might benefit the opponents next time.”
Proportional representation would modernize our democracy, the authors say.
“Only in politics do we still entrust power to a single faction expected to prevail every time over the opposition by sheer force of numbers … we persist in structuring the governing team like a military regiment under a single commander with almost total power to appoint, discipline and expel subordinates.”
The authors? Stephen Harper and Tom Flanagan, back in 1996, when the right was divided and it looked like the Liberals were going to govern forever.
In the 1993 election, the Bloc Québécois won 54 seats with 1,846,024 votes, Reform won 52 seats with 2,559,245 votes and the Progressive Conservatives won two seats with 2,186,422 votes.
That kind of crazy math — which cheated Tories across Canada — makes me favour proportional representation. It’s fairer.
But the Conservatives are right to call for a referendum, because voters should decide.
There is something to be said for the simplicity of the first-past-the-post system.
So I think we ought to have a ranked ballot referendum, letting people vote for proportional representation, ranked ballots and the status quo, after MPs lay out detailed proposals.
While we’re at it, we ought to let voters have a say on the Senate: choosing between abolition, which the NDP supports; a reformed, non-partisan appointment process, which the Liberals support; and whatever the Tories propose. The Supreme Court says the government can’t change the Senate without provincial approval, but a referendum is the only thing that might bring about change.
Harper, what with Mike Duffy and all, has steered his government into a senatorial deadend.
On Friday, he announced a moratorium on future appointments, which is not sustainable, since eventually there won’t be enough senators to fulfil their constitutional role.
I’m nervous about the NDP’s abolition plan, not since I think we need a Senate, but because premiers have the power to block it. What would Tom Mulcair offer them for a deal?
The Liberal idea, where a panel chooses non-partisan worthies to quietly fuss over amendments, seems like the best option, since it would at least stop the Senate being used as an extension of the prime minister’s office, and it doesn’t require constitutional change.
Any of these schemes would be better than the current ridiculous situation, but the government needs to ask Canadians for a mandate.