The two contests for the federal leadership, the NDP -- already started -- and the Liberal -- on hold -- give an opportunity to think political realignment in Canada.
These leadership races could be an opportunity for serious debate about proportional representation, to give every person an equal vote, and climate change, the most urgent issue humankind faces, and one where the majority in Parliament is at odds with the majority of Canadians.
The chattering classes are making much of what some claim to be a mooted prospective Liberal/NDP merger. The story is making it onto editorial and front pages and into the priority news lineup. Is there any virtue in exploring the idea? We suggest the merger story is a waste of time for two reasons.
First, it deals with a symptom -- the inability of political parties to obtain an absolute majority -- rather than the cause, Canada's current electoral system and our mediocre democratic involvement in it. Second, it distracts us from real political issues, framing politics as a sports-like process of strategic arrangements creating winners and losers.
Canada is in the midst of a crisis in democracy unique in its history. There is simply no other historical example that one can compare it to. It is multi-faceted and it affects every aspect of our national politics and political discourse. It is inexorably eroding the political fabric of the country and therefore our viability as a democratic nation.
For Immediate Release
April 15, 2010
New hard-hitting report details Prime Minister's ‘assault on Democracy'
The PR people come straight for you at public events. They aren't easily deterred. They have an evangelical quality. I don't mean Public Relations people; they're shy and retiring by comparison. I mean the Proportional Representation people. They know the answer to our democratic deficit. They're true believers.
I confess I was once among them. After all, it's been the only serious form of democratic reform on offer here. (OK, Senate reform, too; I'll get to that.) PR would make a real difference in how we vote and how governments are created. At the least, if Canadians got a chance to vote on PR, I felt, they'd embrace it. It was a no-brainer.
This is a key time in history for those of us who want all Canadians to cast a vote that counts. Canadians and the three centre left political parties are clear: we need electoral reform. We know proportional representation is the game changer. We need to build a massive movement to push this to the top of the agenda and make this a ballot box issue. To do this, we need the support of all Canadians who want to see a Parliament that reflects how we voted. Please join us on May 26 and be part of making it happen.
Making the social democratic movement operate like a "normal" more centrist political party is the kind of advice the mainstream press has been offering to the NDP since shortly after it was founded in Calgary, as the CCF, in 1932.
NDP members want the party to build upon its newfound status as a national party, and ready itself to take on the role of government. However, to win office, few New Democrats want NDP policies to mirror recent Conservative and Liberal practices, or expect the party to move away from supporting workers, or tone down talk about empowering equality-seeking groups.
