These electoral reform committee meetings are more and more boring. The special commons committee sitting over the summer was supposed to give us commentators something to write about. The only problem is that with the usual slump in readership over the summer, this has proved to be a yawn. It provides nowhere need the entertainment value of the presidential race of our southern neighbour.
Blame Prime Minister Trudeau. It was his silly idea to promise to interfere in how we vote in this country. He gave cabinet responsibility for the promise to a wet-behind-the-ears lady from Peterborough. Ottawa watchers are starting to wonder what she will screw up next.
And what is really annoying is that we did our best to help. We were ignored by Ms. Monsef. Obviously no help was needed. She could louse up the portfolio all by herself, thank you. The same attitude was shown by the Liberal committee chair: We will screw it up by ourselves, thank you.
Well, who needs an old greybeard around who has been watching how people vote for over 50 years. We often supported more than a few candidates at once in some of those elections and over the years it added up to a lot of experience.
Speaking of greybeards, we were doubly annoyed when former NDP Leader Ed Broadbent was invited to pitch proportional representation (PR) to the committee. There was no balance to what he had to say. There were no apologies. His were the golden oldies of erroneous beliefs about the supposed benefits of PR.
He told the parliamentarians that there will be more women in politics with PR. He should have been asked why the New Democrats do not already have as many female MPs as male?
There was the usual claim that there is more civility in a parliament with PR. This is because you never know what party you might need to add to a coalition. He must be unaware of the fist fights that have taken place in the PR-elected Japanese Diet.
What is really upsetting though is very few of these academics and politicians talking to the committee understand the possible effects on Canada of some of these voting systems. Canada is a very large country with still a relatively small population. It is our national political parties that really are the glue that hold this country together. We have to do everything we can to keep those national parties working for this country. Anything that jeopardizes those national structures should be anathema to concerned Canadians.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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