The disease afflicting the Liberal party is serious and it’s threatening our democratic system.
Democracy’s strength is not measured by the performance of the government, but by the ability of free and responsible media and free and competent opposition to keep the government accountable. If one or both of these two elements are missing, democracy suffers.
I can’t speak about media because of an obvious conflict of interest. But I can say without any doubt that since 1993, Canada has had an ailing parliamentary democracy.
It’s pointless to discuss the competence of the governments of former prime minister Jean Chrétien or Stephen Harper today. Good or bad, the reality is that they could not be replaced because there was and is no effective opposition.
In this context, Harper’s most important political achievement was his success as opposition leader in creating a credible opposition to the government of the day. Unfortunately, now our democracy is limping again. Canada has no viable alternative to the current government.
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“I can’t speak about media because of an obvious conflict of interest. But I can say without any doubt that since 1993, Canada has had an ailing parliamentary democracy.” OK. What happened back then?
-When Bouchard exited, the Conservative’s deal with devil ended the illusion of previous Majorities under Mulroney. The Bloc made it nearly impossible to have a majority government. Although Chrétien managed to have one with only 37%.
-The Liberals made a new deal with the devil by virtue of its co-dependency on the Bloc to create the illusion that only Liberals could save Canada from breaking up and that almost happened anyway in 1996. The adoption by Chrétien of the Harper/Manning Clarity Act then exposed the consequences sufficiently for the folks in Trois Pistols to understand the fallout of Separation. But the assured 75 seats in Quebec no matter what the demographics, distorts democracy.
- NAFTA ended commerce the way we knew it. Forced east/west trade with equalization payoffs from Ontario ceased to make sense. We became a North American trading bloc and commerce flows changed the economy which in turn causes the need for government structures to adapt.
Ergo government is still structured as if Upper and Lower Canada existed and as if we were sending competent representatives to Ottawa who understood our economy ( the core business used to be farming and our MPs understood that line of work).
Now we have more people in the GTHA than Canada had back when it was formed. Thus we need to stop the heavy handed centralization of Ottawa and leave more taxing capacity in the hands of local Provincial and Municipal governments. Our local needs are not being sufficiently funded, even Mayor Miller is right about that.
Both of the serious Parties in Ottawa need to compete on decentralization and debate the unintended consequences of making necessary legislative changes in that regard. We are simply not currently structured to face the fact that we are a highly regionalized country trying to compete in a global economy. Meanwhile let’s give “Thanks” we are able to discuss this openly.
Can’t disagree with your analysis nomdeblog. That weary Upper Canada, Lower Canada and the realms vision of Canada have irked Westerners since before there were western provinces.
Angelo says that democracy came under attack in ’93. From my western viewpoint I would say that we have never had democracy in Canada. We had a series of Central Canadian Dictators serving at the pleasure of Central Canadian money men.
Good posts. Now, let’s dismantle all those trade distorting, inefficient, consumer raping supply mananged bureacracies, milk boards, pork boards, chicken boards and grain monopolies that were created to serve the interests of Upper and Lower Canada. So, that they could ship high priced finished products back to us to buy and eat.
Until that is done, nothing will change and the price I pay for products to feed myself will remain unwarrantedly expensive. Paying some central Canadian pasta producer to eat stuff we grew our here just drives me.
Anyone else find it amusing that a journalist would describe this supposed “ailment” as being bad for all democracy when it afflicts the Liberal Party? Where were his protests when Chretien was strutting about rewarding his friends?
Usually Angelo writes a bit better than this nonsense. I say nonsense because the Liberal Party of Canada’s interests and the media coverage of them are inexorably and intricately entwined.
You simply cannot write a column about what is wrong with Canadian democracy and give the medias central role a pass. Rather a pathetic excuse that Angelo can’t comment on media because hes a part of it. Thats an excuse that too many (virtually all) journalists fall back on.
What we desperately need is media critiquing one another and calling out one another. That the Liberal/leftist policy plank Global Warming is still discussed as a fact in the majority of the media highlights the fact that they are nothing but water carriers for the LPC- and a clear demonstration that all things Liberal are to be validated and venerated, and any who would disagree are to be dismissed and discredited.
The LPC finds itself in the dire straights it is in because the media will not let it die from its self inflicted wounds. Only then will the LPC really be able to rebuild. A grass roots, ground up effort much like the conservative movement went through.
You cant correct what has become an incredibly corrupt institution by simply moveing a few parts around. It needs to be gutted and started anew, and the only way the current rats are going to leave the ship is if it is allowed to sink. And that means the media needs to shine some honest light on the LPC rather than sheild it from it.
Instead the media has been hoisting the near dead LPC corpse high upon their shoulders (the only thing that is actually keeping it alive) , and for many Canadians who pay little attention to politics it gives the appearance that the LPC is a healthy party and healthy political alternative to the Harper governent. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Personally I think democracy is ailing because laws and policies are now dictated by special interest groups rather than by voters. Quebec just happens to be the one of the most influential of those groups. Just look at all the bad policy that is being hammered out in the name of “climate change”. The only ones actually demanding the types of policies that are being inflicted upon us are the environretardists. Ordinary Canadians simply don’t have the time or wherewithal to keep up with the propaganda that most of these groups spew on a daily basis. The ordinary voter doesn’t have the privileged access to the politicians and treasuries that the special interest groups have through their lobbyists. And we only get to vote on a very limited platform, one that is dictated to us by the politicians, not one that is dictated by the people to the politicians. Yet huge policy and funding initiatives take place outside of the direct mandate of an election.
Theres no long such a thing as Upper Canada Versus Lower Canada as today, Quebec rules the day!