Excellency, I write to you not as a partisan, but as a student of politics and a young citizen of Canada concerned about the future of democracy in this country. I am not a member of any party, nor do I have any particular love for any party over another.
In this vein, I think I am similar to many young Canadians disenfranchised or otherwise dismayed – a demographic that has no interest in the partisan hackery of 'youth arms' yet remains deeply interested and hopeful for the future of Canadian democracy. I urge you to take a bold step and exercise the powers vested in you as the Governor General of Canada to allow the NDP-Liberal Coalition government to take office with the support of the Bloc.
Democracy as we know it in a First-Past-The-Post system is a tired and expired concept - one that fails to reflect the political desires of the electorate. Rather than Canadians being able to choose the government they want, they are forced to simply vote AGAINST the government that they do not want.
Our system installs inflated majorities and prevents people from voting their consciousness. I am not writing you with a partisan position - I care little for partisan politics in this country and hold no allegiance to any party. I am a researcher and student of politics and my interests are those of democracy in Canada.
The government of Canada in this parliament proposed cuts to end the only financial lifeline that small parties might have in order to compete in these unfair and bias elections rather than trying to deal with this democratic deficit.
There are many other things to discuss, but I'm not writing to you to talk politics about 'separatists' or 'socialists' or who is right to govern Canada, etc. That is not for you or I to decide and this public debate has clearly devolved into name-calling and financial might already.
The critical issue that I want to raise with you is that in your capacity the Governor General, you must take into consideration that all we can say with empirical certainty is that the majority of Canadians did not vote for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives. Many did not cast votes at all.
You see, our electoral system seeks stability through installing inflated majorities, but this drives voters away from politics as it reinforces that regardless of what they want to see in Parliament, it is always the same old result. So why care?
I propose for your consideration that the democratic value of the First Past The Post system is its 'instability'. The 'instability' of Parliament is the democratic 'check' factor in our system. Without it, majority governments in our system are pseudo-elected autocrats – only accountable in the loosest of ways.
The Prime Minister is the person who sits in the House of Commons and commands the support of the House - our constitution does not speak of Political Parties. The Westminster system is predicated around free citizens being chosen by their peers in a geographic community who come to the House of Commons and through open debate, form coalitions with like-minded people. They are held accountable to the regions they represent by these fluid coalitions. Over time, partisanship evolved and this is undoubtedly a permanent fixture in Canadian politics.
However, I pose for your consideration that for the first time in generations, Canadians CARE about what is happening on the Hill. They care, because they are seeing the Parliament work to represent what they voted for - which was NOT the Conservative Party of Canada.
The Prime Minister will ask you to prorogue Parliament in order to run his ad campaigns over the next month. As a dual citizen of Trinidadian origin, I've seen the effects of a government in a tight spot proroguing Parliament and then running smear campaigns to ensure its own victory. That is not democracy.
When the Prime Minister asks you to do this, please remember that you are empowered with the responsibility to assess whether this parliament can work; indeed, you must ask yourself whether there is another Prime Minister in the House of Commons.
The proposition that voters in Quebec who are represented by the Bloc (who has served as Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in past Parliaments) ought not to have a role in government is absolute rubbish and has no bearing in any intelligent consideration of the facts.
The Prime Minister is the person who commands the loyalty of the House of Commons. Simply because Mr. Harper's party possesses more seats based on our poor electoral system does not in principle make him the Prime Minister.
The Liberals and the NDP, with cooperation from the Bloc, have demonstrated that they can make Parliament work as a coalition - keeping one another in check and representing the interest of Canadians who succeeded in voting Bloc, Liberal, and NDP. I suspect that Green Party voters would also support this coalition. In essence, we are seeing a democratic movement in this country that is altogether new.
Only you have the power to allow this democratic process to continue. You are not obliged to prorogue Parliament nor are you obliged to call fresh elections. I humbly urge you to consider not only the 'economics' of this situation, but also consider the democratic value of coalition governments in the changing landscape of Canadian politics.
Sincerely,
Ajay Parasram, M.A. Political Science, Carleton University
1 comment:
Unfortunately, she did not listen to anybody but Stephen Harper.
So maybe it is the time to ask this question: Why in a democratic country, which many think Canada is, somebody with a nice sounding title and nice income funded by taxpayers should be able, without any explanations and any accountability, interfere in politics the way she did?
Until this day, I did not mind that a few of my tax dollars are spent to keep this position - out of respect for tradition. But there are more important things than traditions - they are democratic principles . When a person who has no mandate from Canadian electorate interferes in the politics so heavy-handedly, these principles are clearly violated. In my opinion, Governor-General has discredited her role.
Alex K., Toronto
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