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Canada Elects Another Dictatorship For Four Years
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by steffanileman | May 4, 2011 at 12:44 pm
275 views | 3 Recommendations | 9 comments
Reform Alliance receives absolute power, but where are the reforms?
Conservative Party swept to a majority government yesterday in spite of Quebecers that voted against it as a block and 60-percent of the electorate across Canada that had other preferences. Nobody was more stunned with the result than young voters and those voting for the first time, who kept Twitter abuzz about the results. One young voter tweeted “What do you mean majority? With 39-percent of the vote? I don’t understand.”
39-percent of eligible voters didn’t bother to go to the polls. One of my friends, a waitress, said “What difference is it going to make?” a sentiment apparently shared by many. A self-employed friend thought he should vote for the NDP for his family’s sake, but then decided it wouldn’t make any difference. Another friend, a retired executive in Ontario, told me he must vote Conservative for his grandchildren’s sake. “NDP will bankrupt the country” he said.
The centrist Liberal Party was decimated, polarising the country into the Left and Right, similar to the political landscape in British Columbia. With Jack Layton’s personal attacks against Michael Ignatieff, and his rising popularity in Quebec, strategic voting went out the window. Layton traded NDP’s real power in a minority government with personal glory as the powerless leader of the Official Opposition. It remains to be seen if NDP can reinvent itself to be a viable contender in federal politics.
This election was especially significant for the country’s future, since the Conservative Party is the reincarnation of the western Reform Alliance, the people that were supposed to reform Canada’s dysfunctional political system, such as the unelected senate. For the uninitiated, Reform Alliance, or the Canadian Alliance, was born in reaction to Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Mulroney’s dictatorial 9-year regime that eventually destroyed the party.
So far we haven’t seen any reform initiatives from the born-again Conservatives and reformist PM Stephen Harper to bring real democracy to Canada. Unless we see a transformed Stephen Harper within the next few months, it appears that this election was in fact a vindication and victory for Brian Mulroney over his detractors, and Mr. Harper is merely taking over where he’d left off.
People voted in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt. Democracy takes more than being able to cast a vote. It requires checks and balances, executive accountability, access to justice, and people’s participation in decisions that materially affect their lives. First of all, it implies majority rule with respect for minorities, not a dictatorship of the minority over the majority as what they have in Third World countries such as Syria. When we apply the tests and analogies, and what happened in this election, Canada fails as a genuine democracy. It fails not because of the personalities or the choices involved, but because of an archaic and dysfunctional system that corrupts the political process.
Canada’s prime ministers have more power than presidents of the United States. As the chief executive, chief legislator and the appointer of judges, and in the absence of any effective opposition within or without his party or an elected upper house, the PM’s power is absolute. The only difference between Canada and a Third World dictatorship, or an absolute monarchy, is the term, and that is not what democracy is about.
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at 17:11 on May 4th, 2011
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at 07:00 on May 5th, 2011
39% of the 61% who actually bothered to vote elected the Conservative party. The fact is, in more ridings their candidates got more votes, because the majority of Canadians were annoyed at having an election at all, and blamed the Liberals, because Michael Ignatief, or as I have been calling him for months, Iggy Plop, failed to demonstrate a concern for anyone or anything other than his own ambition. He tried, granted. Butt he man is about as charismatic as a pit viper.
Attack adds by Jack Layton and Stephen Harper did not help. Nor did the fact that Iggy seemed to base his entire campaign on trying to undermine the solid Cosnervative vote, rather than consolidate his own support, or win voters to his party by having a clear and viable platform. In fact, the only party to make any attempt at a real platform was the NDP, and even they all but abandoned it in favour of back biting and mud-slinging.
Sadly, as a result, rather than unifying an opposition to the Conservative party, and perhaps getting another conservative minority, with the NDP as official opposition, as many Canadians expected, all the two opposition parties did was trade positions, sink their allies, and give Mr Harper a majority that even many conservatives I know feel is a dangerous prospect. People did not vote in a Conservative majority, they voted out a coalition government that would not have occurred, because the two leaders accused of having the largest role in it would not come out and say it would not happen, but rather that they would prefer to form their own majority government.
We should give up on this failed attempt at democracy we use here, and invite someone like Prince Andrew to come over and be the Absolute Monarch of Canada, at this rate. The main difference between that and a Majority government is that at least with a monarchy, we KNOW we have no say. A democratically elected dictator is a dictator none-the-less. The goal is to elect the most benevolent one possible, or else put enough checks and balances in place that he or she is not able to do any serious or lasting damage to our way of life. None of the leaders strike me as a good choice of absolute-monarch-in-all-but-title. We need a John A MacDonald, or Winston Churchill, with a passion for the nation above all else, whose personal ambitions are to be the best possible leader for the counrty; not a Frankenstein’s-monster-come-undertaker, or a Napolean-meets-Krushev, or whatever the hell Ignatief is….
Now wonder almost 40% of Canadians felt staying home and watching "Days of our Lives" or "House" was more important. What happened to the passion for democracy in this country? Politicians killed it, because it was interfering with their ability to put the screws to us.
at 10:32 on May 5th, 2011
The Queen may be a better ruler than some of the characters we've seen in the political arena, but you know that will not happen. The whole idea behind this game is to give people the illusion that they are governing themselves.
at 07:50 on May 5th, 2011
Where were the Steffanileman's and Piobar's writing on a failed democracy and dictatorship when the Liberal party had majority governments for years? No where to be seen or heard then EH! All of a sudden democracy has failed. LOL. So you are anti-conservative, you didn't like Ignatief, you didn't vote NDP, and you didn't vote Green. It's not like Canadians lack choice. So it's hardly a failing of democracy or the politicians. Sounds more like sour grapes and an unwillingness to accept that those who did come out to vote believe that they still counted and wanted to be heard. Politics, like the lottery. You can't win if you don't play, and playing is no guarantee of a win.
at 10:43 on May 5th, 2011
Who said the Liberal dictatorship was good? I never understood why Chretien was so popular, since he lied about the GST, one of the big reasons for the PC defeat, he expanded the FTA and followed the same policies implemented by his predecessor. At least Mulroney was open and honest about it. Liberal vs. Conservative is not the issue here. Issue is a system that herds the people like sheep, and how the new-born Conservatives have forgotten so quickly what they purported to do...
at 10:50 on May 5th, 2011
Our politicians enjoy the sheep-like attitude of Canadians; it makes it easier to win votes. The fewer voters the fewer people to win over, and the fewer of those who do vote who actually understand anything about politics, they easier they are to fleece- excuse the bad pun.Cretien was popular because even though he was a crook, it was always fun to watch him give a press conference... whether he would put his foot in his mouth, or a fist in the face of a heckler, you always knew something would happen!
at 09:34 on May 5th, 2011
Thrity-Aught-Six, you are right, to a point, but I have been saying democracy failed for years; however when a high-school kid makes such a claim, people ignore it; and back then, I simply did not have the same level of access to internet in any case. Democracy in this country started to die decades ago. The last decent Prime Minister was the first one, Sir John A MacDonald, in my books, but realistically, boring leaders like Pearson and Diefenbaker, combined with the likes of that arrogant ass Trudeau, have all but destroyed people's faith in their political leaders. Moreover, Canada has been at peace for generations, so the vast majority of voters have no conception of how important their vote is to a healthy democratic system, or what it is like to live in a totalitarian regime. Too long have people in this country been content to sit back and abandon their democratic rights, because the five-minutes at the polling station is far too inconvenient. Having been living under a false sense of security, where Canada is a utopia protected by the USA, and by our social safety-nets, which, to be honest, were brought in, for the most part, by Conservative governments, people have lost interest. That is why democracy has failed. I am not opposed to a Conservative government. I am opposed to only 60% of voters actually turning up at the polls, and then the other 40% complaining that, having not bothered to vote, the wrong party got in... THAT to me, is why democracy has failed. I may prefer a minority government, but if a majority is elected I am fine with that. I am not fine with poor voter turn out, and constant belly-aching by people who could not be bothered to cast a vote, and who do not understand that THEY are the problem....
at 11:56 on May 5th, 2011
Piobar, Glad you conceded, "poor voter turn out, and constant belly-aching by people who could not be bothered to cast a vote, and who do not understand that THEY are the problem...." This is not a failing of democracy. It's a failure of citizen participation and can not be laid at the feet of democracy. One of the keys of democratic society and governance is political choice. Canadians have four political mainstream party's now. Canadians have choices. Those Canadians who complain they are not heard or represented with such political diversity need to look at their hole card. Obviously they want something from government that isn't mainstream Canadian consensus, and if, if they are not going to the polls on that basis -tough luck. No government [representing the majority by votes cast] is going to run on any issue desired by a only minority.
I love Canada and have a deep respect for Canadians. I just returned in May from a month in Ontario, skiing Blue Mountain. :-)Fantastic time and so were the people. Lots of debate over "brewskis". Don't let too much American political sentiment color your views. You haven't got the left/right political polarization we have. And judging by this election and others, Canadians have no problem like us with entrenched partisanship. If I'm correct, Ontario, the bastion of Liberal Canada, came out and voted Conservative en-mass and changed the political map of Canada. And the NDP did likewise in Quebec, toppling the Separatists Bloc. I'd say you have a nice democracy at work. Hell, even Elizabeth May won a seat in B.C. LOL
I'll have to have a word with my Yankee sister Elizabeth and see if we can't make B.C. the 51st State. ;-)
at 13:56 on May 5th, 2011
As a proud BC boy, I can't see my home province becoming a state any time soon... the driving force of the economy is BC bud, and unless Washington were to legalize it, BC is better off in Canada, where it may be illegal, but at least it is ignored by and large. As for <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Elizabeth May getting a seat, I still have not figured that one out... but I suppose it is good for her. Still, I thought the ground felt awfully cold on Monday....
Of course, you are right that we do not have the same level of polarization between left and right up here in our electoral system, and there are definately some good features to the way our democracy is supposed to work. But I have to argue that most of the parties in this country DO try and market to the minority, while at the same time, ignoring the majority and doing everything in their power to make the youth vote stay silent.
Rather than focus on real issues, with long term plans, and try to win people over, our governments have a long history of pandering to the 23% of the population that is made up by Quebec, of whom the main mouthpieces for sovereignty make up an even smaller minority. Yet they are loud, demanding, and therefore draw more attention from politicians than say university students in BC, or fisherman in the Maritimes... That, combined with what seems to be an intentional encouragement of voter apathy, is why democracy is breaking down, in my view. If separatists in Quebec were not the minority, they would have succeeded in winning one of their petty little referendums by now. Yet they still get more federal support and attention than any other group in Canada, whose representatives seldom have the authority to actually speak on their behalf in parliament.
On paper, we have a pretty great system. There are serious problems that need to be addressed however, because if we wait until our luck runs out, it will be too late to do anything. And if we want our system to work the way it does on paper, and keep the social safety nets up and running that Canadians hold so dear, people need to start paying attention, which means we need politicians worth paying attention to. They are like squabbling children most of the time, and the rest of the time, they are only agreeing on things that are in their own best interests, or make them look good. Once the cameras are off, they cancel necessary purchases, and give themselves raises. Its been going on for years, and it is nothing unique to Canada; but it is definately not representative of the desires of the Canadian people.