The Elephant and the Mouse How American-style politics has changed Canada’s

How American-style politics have changed Canada’s

IN 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy travelled to Ottawa to address our House of Commons. Using his trademark oratorical flair, the dashing young president tried to sum up the long history of CanadaU.S. relations. “Geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies,” said Kennedy. “Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder.”

The Canadian perspective, however, has never been quite so lofty. Speaking to the National Press Club in Washington in 1969, Prime

Minister Pierre Trudeau suggested a different interpretation.

“Living next to [the U.S.] is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and eventempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”

While Trudeau’s quip drew a big laugh at the time, it had a deeper meaning that was perhaps lost on his American audience.

Because, to a Canadian, close economic and geographic ties have always felt a lot more like Trudeau’s analogy than Kennedy’s.

The blessings of proximity are indeedplentiful.SincetheColdWar,we have relied on their military might to defend our borders and lead the fight against terrorism. And thanks to our (mostly) friendly economic relationship over the years, we’ve been able to carve out trade deals that allow us to buy and sell our goods to their vast market. In 2018, we sold more than $300 billion worth of goods and services to the U.S., representing 75 per cent of our total exports. (China is a distant second place, buying only $21 billion of our goods.) Plus, with our open borders, we can escape to their warmer climate whenever winter gets to be too much.

It’s why former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney often says, “The desk of the Canadian prime minister holds many files but two absolutely dominate” – national unity and our relationship with the U.S.

All of this, however, comes with a price. Living next door to the American colossus means that any attempt we make to express our voice or our identity gets completely overwhelmed by the beast’s grunts and twitches. American cultural imperialism saturates our media, arts and literature, music, fashion, sports and entertainment. And, increasingly, our politics. We need look no further than the Americanization of the role our prime minister plays in the political system. Originally, Canadian prime ministers were described as primus inter pares, a Latin phrase meaning “first among equals.” This concept defines the PM’s relationship not only with Cabinet but also with the citizens of the country.

Unlike the U.S. president, the prime minister is not our head of state. The Queen (or her representative, the Governor General) holds that position while the prime minister handles the affairs of state with the help of his elected advisers.

As this issue’s cover illustration so aptly illustrates, this notion is changing; gradually our politics are becoming more Americanized. Influenced by the U.S. system, our prime ministers are now posing

as chief executives rather than firsts among equals. Whereas once legislative decisions originated in Parliament – representing the people – they now draw life from unelected advisers in the PMO – representing, to a voter’s perception, lobbyists and special interests.

This shift has landed our last two prime ministers in hot water, similar to the abuse-of-power scandals that have rocked the U.S. political establishment, starting with Richard Nixon all the way up to the myriad legal troubles faced by President Donald Trump.

The public anger that ensued during the SNC-Lavalin scandal was largely because two of the main protagonists – Gerald Butts and Katie Telford – were unelected PMO officials asserting influence over an elected parliamentarian appointed to Cabinet. (Ironically, Trudeau’s father is often cited as the first prime minister to start the practice of moving power away from his Cabinet and into the PMO.)

Stephen Harper was another PM who famously neutered his Cabinet and backbenchers, opting to centralize decision-making in his allpowerful PMO. Like Trudeau later, this blew up in Harper’s face after it was revealed that Nigel Wright, the prime minister’s chief of staff, had paid off a debt owed by Tory Senator Mike Duffy to avoid embarrassing the party. During the scandal, MP Brent Rathgeber quit the Tory caucus, claiming the PMO was pressuring them to vote “like trained seals” adding that his boss had upended parliamentary democracy: “MPs don’t represent their constituents in Ottawa. They represent the government to their constituents.”

The Americanization of our political system isn’t limited to the increasing power of appointed seal trainers. Aping their U.S. counterparts, election strategists try to shine the spotlight on party leaders – they have become the big stars rather than the parties or policies. You don’t have to look very far for a U.S. parallel. Trump, who spent most of his life as a registered Democrat, became the Republican leader not because he toed the party line but because he was a well-known celebrity who might defeat Hillary Clinton.

The media ( Zoomer included) is a guilty party by continually pumping up the leaders. Increasingly, we say thatlegislationispassedby“Trudeau” instead of the “Lib-erals” or the “government.” The Conservatives’ website goes so far as to trumpet “Andrew Scheer’s Immigration Plan” instead of calling it by its rightful name: “The Conservative Party’s Immigration Plan.”

THIS hyper-focus on the leader also helps explain the rise of dynasties in Canadian politics. In the U.S. political star system, the Kennedy and Bush families have always enjoyed a polling advantage simply because their names are instantly recognizable.

Sensing a similar opportunity up here, party strategists have welcomed Trudeau, Mulroney and Ford offspring or siblings into their folds, realizing that it never hurts to have a brand-name politician on the ballot.

It’s even better if you can play name-association with triumphant American presidents – a Trudeau will always be seen as Kennedyesque, a Mulroney (who eulogized both Ronald and Nancy Reagan and George H.W. Bush) will be forever linked to those families and a Ford, with their similar rabble-rousing styles, will inevitably draw comparisons to Trump.

Whether American hegemony in our political system is a good or bad trend is irrelevant. It’s not the way our system is meant to operate. Parliamentary democracy works best when the MPs and Cabinet govern the nation, not some shadowy, untouchable characters in the PMO.

So when you vote in this election, do so with this in mind. Learn the platforms that each party is promoting. Understand where your local candidate stands on issues that are important to you. And when you cast your ballot, do so with the understanding that you’re voting directly for your local member of Parliament, not for Trudeau, Scheer, Singh, May or Bernier.