Canada's bad political system

So often we're told by our teachers and the media that the Canadian parliamentary system is far superior to the American's. Nonsense! What we have in Canada when there's a majority in Parliament is a Prime Ministerial dictatorship. Our last PM, Chretien, ran the country like his private fiefdom. He never consulted the backbenchers, and even his cabinet was left out of major and some minor decision-making. (At this point I don't want to discuss minority government in Canada, that's for another blog). That means that we elect representatives who have no voices, and there's nothing within our constitution that requires that the PM give consideration to their opinion. On the contrary, if any Member dares to vote against the government's bills, he or she is thrown out of the caucus. The concentration of power in the hand of the Prime Minister in Canada is like that of a dictator in a banana republic. The only cause for his concern would be the next election, but given the hold that the Liberals have on Ontario (stupid Ontarians!) the PM does pretty much as he pleases. He can choose his own cabinet (no need for a senatorial ok as in the US), he chooses judges (no review by any judicial or independent body), he can dismiss senior civil servants as he likes, he can keep all government matters secret, unlike a US president, and much much more power is in our PM's hands.

By contrast, in the US at the present time, all three branches of government are controlled by the Republicans. But if you've been following the events there lately, you discover that the Democrats nevertheless have been able to stymie President Bush on judicial nominations. And some Republican senators have gone along with the Democrats, and are still in the good graces of the party. What that indicates is that there is a level of democracy in the US that is totally absent for Canada and Canadians.

There's no doubt in my mind that our system of government is not a healthy democracy. Not all parliamentary democracies are as dangerous as ours. When the British Conservative members of parliament were unhappy with Thatcher, they threw her out as PM. It didn't require an election or a leadership conference. They acted on their democratic impulses as elected representatives. And lots of other countries have similar systems but their chief executive is elected directly by the people, which in itself imposes some caution on that individual and office. Every Canadian should carefully consider how he or she votes in order to put some serious limitation on the power of the Prime Minister. Which brings me to the subject of minority goverments in Canada. That's coming up soon.