Roundup: Fear change of government!

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Another day, another round of completely objectionable things heard regarding electoral reform that need to be countered. Most egregious of all today was Elizabeth May’s musing about the nature of government under current and PR systems.

And then my head exploded.

It sounded for a moment there like May was advocating for a system of basically permanent governments that don’t change, and that basic accountability – i.e. “throwing the bums out” – was a bad thing. It boggles the mind that this would be considered a good thing. Is it a good thing that countries like Germany, Austria and Sweden have basically had one-party rule for decades, where coalition partners get shuffled and that’s that? That hardly sounds like a healthy democracy because longevity can certainly breed complacency and to a certain degree corruption. May also assumes that the “consensus building” of coalitions would somehow produce superior governance without looking at the effect it has on accountability (when everyone’s responsible, then no one’s responsible), or that the watered-down outcomes and lack of ability to govern effectively in many cases is really better than a system that allows for decisive action but also the ability to hold those who take action to account for those decisions. Seriously, though, this dislike of accountability mechanisms is very concerning. Also, this notion that the “right parties” will always be in power to get these mythical better outcomes.

https://twitter.com/emmmacfarlane/status/771181766413398020

https://twitter.com/emmmacfarlane/status/771182236003512324

And then there’s Andrew Coyne, who again cherry-picks his railing against the arguments to keep the status quo with regards to the arguments about stable governments (as though other PR countries operate on a system of responsible government), or that our current system has been riddled with regional parties that we warn about in PR countries (ignoring that regional parties don’t last long in our system precisely because they can’t get power), and buying into Ed Broadbent’s ridiculous revisionist mythologizing about the NEP.

I’ll end on one good note, which was Samara’s call for better civic education. That should be what the government spends its time, energy and resources on rather than this ridiculous quest for a new electoral system, but it’s a start that people are calling out for it.

Good reads:

  • On Trudeau’s trip to China, the canola problem is temporarily solved, we’ve joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and he’s highlighted consular cases.
  • GDP shrank for a second quarter in a row, and the Conservatives are freaking out, never mind that there was a giant fire that caused much of the turmoil.
  • The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women inquiry officially gets started today.
  • Questions are being posed about the creation of the cabinet committee on litigation management and how it interferes with the Attorney General’s job.
  • Maryam Monsef had an electoral reform meeting in Iqaluit on almost no notice and without proper translation. It went about as well as you can expect.
  • PEI Senator Percy Downe asked the PBO how much revenue would be lost if the Confederation Bridge went toll-free like the Champlain Bridge. Answer: $2.5 million.
  • Kent Hehr says he’ll get a solution to homeless veterans in a “relatively timely” way.
  • Stéphane Dion says that the UN needs to get involved to hold Syria and ISIS responsible for chemical weapon attacks.
  • The government is sending a “recon mission” to Mali to look more closely at peace operations options in that country.
  • Reports are showing the extent of the risks posed by the ancient wiring at 24 Sussex, and how that endangered the Harper family while they lived there.
  • Candice Bergen is contemplating a run for the Conservative leadership, for some unfathomable reason.
  • Maxime Bernier says he’ll push for pipelines. Because that worked so well under the government he served in.
  • Aaron Wherry looks at non-electoral reform ways of improving democracy and completely ignores the problem of how party leaders get selected.
  • Adam Dodek writes about the Liberal promise to do away with omnibus bills.
  • Paul Wells reflects on his conversation with Harjit Sajjan about the likely upcoming UN peace operation mission to Africa.

Odds and ends:

Justin Trudeau’s Marvel comics cameo came out yesterday. You can preview some of the pages with him in it on Comixology here.