Current Projects
Past Projects
Neighbourhoods
LINKS
Ward Links
City Web Links
© Clive Doucet 2007
Monday,
October 22, 2007
Toward a new democracy
If there's one thing that the recent provincial election taught us, it is that Greens and New Democrats need to sit down together and talk.
In spite of a miserable turnout, it is clear that for those who did vote, they want the Greens and the New Democrats to be part of Ontario's future. The weird thing is – thanks to our horse-and-buggy electoral system – the Liberals increased their number of seats with less popular support.
What this tells me and anyone else who isn't wedded to some partisan, political team is the Greens and the New Democrats need to open their eyes to their mutual relationship to the people of Ontario. Both parties need to recognize that, for the moment anyway, they have more in common than that which separates them.
The most important is the connection both parties managed to studiously ignore during the election campaign - electoral reform. As so many people have now realized, if we had the kind of electoral system the Nordic countries, Germany or New Zealand enjoy, the composition of the Ontario legislature would have been an exciting place for the next four years, because it would have actually reflected how people voted. There would have been 10 Greens elected, 21 New Democrats, 39 Conservatives and 59 Liberals. A true coalition government would have ensued.
And this outcome presumes people would have voted exactly as they did under the old system. I'd love to see what results Decima would get if it polled Ontarians with this question: "If strategic voting was not necessary to prevent the election of a person or party whom you liked least, would this have affected your vote? And if so, how?" My guess is the results would show even less support for the old parties.
Another thing that is crystal clear from the last election is both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Dalton McGuinty have more in common than they would like anyone to believe. Both Mr. Harper and Mr. McGuinty are acutely aware that their governments would be dissolved into a different kind of configuration with an electoral reform such as the Law Reform Commission and the Ontario Citizens Assembly proposed.
With a New Zealand type of system, Mr. Harper would not be able to say it's my way or the highway as if he represented both a popular majority and a majority of seats. Nor would the political calculus of targeting select slices of the electorate to get the minority votes required work either. Federal policies would actually have to work for the majority of the electorate, not just the ones who voted for you. No doubt, Mr. McGuinty's victory speech – a gracious one – about inclusion would have happened anyway, but it would have had the hard rock of reality attached to it. At least one other party would have had to be added to the governing caste. Isn't that a scary thought?
It's mostly a scary thought to the old parties. So the Greens and the New Democrats need to get off their political soapboxes and sit down with each other and play some political hardball. That begins with evaluating the situation not as you wish it was, but how it is. And how it is, is simple. The old parties will never bring in electoral reform. It's in every throne speech and nothing ever happens. That's the reality. But they are always willing to study, commission, travel, organize committees and citizens assemblies, anything but actually change the system toward something that will create a level playing field between parties. Recognizing and accepting reality is the first step.
The Greens and the New Democrats have something that they can give up to get to where they want to go. It will be hard for both, but it is plausible and possible.
If they formed a temporary alliance for the next election and became temporarily the Green Democrats, they will get a place in government. Once they are part of an Ontario governing coalition, their first order of political business must be to bring about electoral reform. They will need to resist the endless delaying tactics of the old line parties – more studies, more commissions, more citizens assemblies, etc. (because we know what happens when an august body like the Law Reform Commission or a humble one like the recent Citizen's Assembly studies the matter, they conclude electoral reform is required.)
Just do it. And once it's done, they can dissolve the Green Democrats for the following election and return to their pristine soapboxes.
In this way, Greens and New Democrats would serve themselves well and more importantly the province by rejuvenating democracy in Ontario for the 21st century.