Canadian politics about power, not governance

Next week, Members of Parliament will be back in the House of Commons as the fall session of parliament begins. The June show-down which resulted in the creation of the Blue Ribbon Employment Insurance panel looks like it will resume where it left off, as within two weeks there is another confidence vote on the government’s handling of the economic crisis. And the recent confrontations and accusations between Liberal and Conservative MPs on the panel have served as a backdrop to various parties pushing for the show-down to move to the election arena.

In fact, this has been the pattern in the past few years of minority government: high stakes confrontations between political leaders, little or no policy vision, and attempts at cooperation destroyed by hyper-partisan behaviour.

In July, a poll from Harris-Decima suggested that Canadians are growing tired of minority governments and would prefer a majority government. The same poll also found that more Canadians would support than oppose a coalition government after the next election.

While some commentators considered this evidence of the schizophrenic nature of Canadian voters, I think the truth is far simpler: Canadians want to see government that works. Whether it’s through the increased decision-making power entrusted to one party in a majority government or the collaborative approach of a coalition government, Canadians want to see an end to the constant bickering, hyper-partisanship and lack of vision that has characterized the last several years of parliament.

In 2004, when Canada’s first minority government in 25 years was elected, there was hope for a new, more collaborative kind of politics that could involve all of the political parties in making policy decisions for the common good of the whole country. Stephen Harper, then leader of the Official Opposition, noted that after 12 years of Liberal majority governments, “[F]or all the other parties we've been in a kind of relatively powerless position for a long time. I think we're looking forward to the opportunity of having some influence for the next few years.”

Instead of adopting a consultative, cooperative approach, successive Liberal and Conservative minority governments have opted instead to govern as if they had a majority, minimizing cooperation except when they needed support on a crucial vote of confidence. Opposition parties have responded in kind by simply opposing the government, instead of putting forth policy suggestions of their own, or aiming to influence the government through strategic support.

Rather than read the writing on the wall that minority governments are here for awhile, parties behave as if a majority government is inevitably beyond the next election. Everything then is about that upcoming election: jockeying for position, scoring a few points, slinging mud at their opponents.

The result is that politics is about power, not about government. The only vision political parties have to offer is self-centered and self-interested – their own pursuit of power. And the harder they try to make us vote for them through this constant electioneering, the more they turn off voters and foster cynicism about the whole process.

It doesn’t need to be this way. In many other countries, minority governments work successfully. In Germany, for instance, no party has ever won a majority government since 1949. Only one party governed by itself in that period, and only after other parties declined the offer of a coalition. Otherwise, all of Germany’s governments have been coalition governments.

“We cooperate because there’s no other choice,” said Niels Annen, Social Democratic Member of Parliament at a conference on coalition governments in March. “We have an obligation to work with the electoral result the voters have given us.”

Previous Canadian minority governments also demonstrate that the current state of affairs is not inevitable. Canada’s first Bill of Rights, universal health care, the Canadian flag, and the Canada Pension Plan are all accomplishments of minority parliaments in the 1950s and 1960s.

Imagine what a minority government could achieve today, during this time of economic crisis. The Canada Pension Plan protects many Canadian seniors, but those dependent on private pension plans or personal savings have seen their security wiped out over the past year. Universal health care, the quintessentially Canadian program, could be extended to include pharmacare and dental care, ensuring that every Canadian has access to all of the healthcare they need. A poverty elimination strategy could promote the rights and dignity of every Canadian, by enabling them to live free of the crippling grasp of poverty.

This is a time of opportunity, a time for vision. Minority governments don’t need to be an excuse for failing to deliver to Canadians. In fact, they should be a time of collaboration for the common good.