Monday, October 30, 2006

The system works

The current minority government arrangement in the House of Commons is not pleasing to political parties. Political parties pursue power and are not happy having to share it. Even if they only get 40% of the vote, if that's enough to form the government they like to have 100% of the power.

The Canadian people may, however, be of a different mind. With the Conservatives in a minority position, they need the support of other parties to pass bills, and they must modify those bills accordingly. This means that all elected representatives, not just those of the ruling party, get involved in approving legislation. In other words, all Canadians, or at least a majority, have a say in making the law of the land. It's much more democratic than the usual one-party rule, and less divisive, and Canadians may just approve of that. Of course the ruling party fusses and fumes at having their will thwarted, and will no doubt make a lot of noise about it in the next election, but that we must expect from power-seekers.

Maybe Canadians, in their collective wisdom, achieved exactly what they wanted in the last election, either by design or by sheer good luck. I sincerely hope we'll do something similar, with maybe a rearranging of the parties, in the next election.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home