Impolitical applauds a column by Lawrence Martin that encourages Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff to create a Bring Back Democracy platform. Martin suggests a number of specific points designed to reduce the concentration of power in the PMO and make government more open and accountable.
I think Martin overlooks an important one though. We have an electoral system that allows a party with the support of roughly 40% of the electorate to govern as if it has an absolute majority. Surely fixing that should be at the top of the list of Things To Do Today for anyone who wants to make this country more democratic.
And I'm going to disagree with Impolitical on one point.
Bring. It. On. At the appropriate time, of course.
This is the appropriate time. Stephen Harper has clearly indicated his intention to run his next election campaign based on misconceptions about our system of government. What better way to combat that than to encourage a conversation that, by its very nature, will help to educate people about how the system actually works? But can we do justice to the subject in the thirty-odd days of a federal election campaign?
It's conventional wisdom among pundits and politicians that Canadians have no appetite for discussions about governance and constitutional issues. I would have thought that all the attention paid to that last prorogation of parliament would have disabused a lot of them of that notion.
"Appropriate." Lord save us from the appropriate. This is no time to be forking appropriate, eh?