Roundup: “Prominent” Canadians demand unicorns

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Yesterday, the “Every Voter Counts Alliance,” which is a proportional representation umbrella group that includes our friends at Fair Vote Canada got a group of “prominent Canadians” to call on the government to implement a “made-in-Canada” PR system. And while most of these “prominent Canadians” are the usual suspects, they got a few added names including a former Chief Electoral Officer (whom I will note has tried promoting a “rural-urban proportional system” that the Supreme Court would immediately frown upon). Meanwhile, here are a few reminders about just what a “made-in-Canada” PR system is referring to.

Handwavey. Nonsense.

The reason why people like these keep going back to his notion that there’s a “made-in-Canada” system that we can somehow devise that will somehow manage to overcome the constitutional obstacles and at the same time providing their precious proportionality and will somehow deliver all of the supposed goodness that comes along with it despite the fact that we’re a vast country with a sparse population and fairly entrenched regional divisions, is because they don’t actually know how it will look. They just expect someone to figure it out and then present it to them, and it will be so wonderful that there will be no unintended consequences, we won’t wind up with thirty splinter parties, that it won’t give rise to far-right parties like pretty much every other PR system has, that it will lead to stable coalition governments that won’t have big policy “swings” every few years, and there will be no problems. No actual trade-offs. Just a new golden age of democracy.

But if they’re trying to pin their hopes on the Electoral Reform committee and its work, well, I wouldn’t hold my breath. As I’ve discussed elsewhere about why it’s a bad idea from a governance and accountability point of view, and as Kady O’Malley reminds us that the committee never actually came to any kind of consensus, and as I will remind you yet again, their report was a steaming pile of hot garbage. It’s not going to happen. What they’re asking for is magic. Unicorns and gumdrops, and not reality.

It’s time to let the demands for proportionality go. They won’t actually improve governance or representation, because it’s built solely on the emotional response of sore-loserism. We have a system that functions (and would function even better if we undid the “reforms” that were supposed to improve things but only made them worse). Trying to break it even further to satisfy this emotional need for perceived “fairness” which is not actually a Thing is only going to do just that – break it. Time to grow up and actually learn how the system works.

Because everyone is still talking about Kevin O’Leary:

  • O’Leary’s team is scrambling to get needed signatures to formally be a candidate.
  • Canadian Business looks over Kevin O’Leary’s spotty business record.
  • Robyn Urback thinks O’Leary is too boring to be a Canadian Trump, but name recognition still matters against Trudeau.
  • Arlene Dickenson offers her assessment of working with O’Leary, while another former Dragon, Brett Wilson, defends and endorses O’Leary.
  • Michael Den Tandt styles O’Leary a “Darth Vader” compared to “Mad Max” Bernier, but kind of leaves it hanging without explaining it.

Good reads:

  • Here’s a look at the Canadian delegation to the Trump inauguration.
  • Amarjeet Sohi is off to India to talk free trade. He was one imprisoned there and tortured as a terror suspect.
  • Pablo Rodriguez was named the new Government Whip, but it took the whole day for PMO to confirm it after telling the Quebec press.
  • Automakers are concerned about the talk about NAFTA given how integrated supply chains are across the border.
  • There was yet another RMCP computer system outage yesterday thanks to the gong show called Shared Services Canada.
  • The suspension of Vice Admiral Norman is creating uncertainty around our shipbuilding programme. Some firms are asking for an extension.
  • CRA may be monitoring your social media if they suspect you of tax evasion.
  • It turns out that Conservative changes to environmental assessments slowed down projects and created more uncertainty rather than speed them up.
  • Robert Hiltz notes the familiar cynicism with how Trudeau deals with questions.
  • Paul Wells looks at Stephen Harper’s speech about the coming Trumpocalypse, and everything that it augurs (along with Harper’s interesting positioning).

Odds and ends:

A Liberal staffer was fired after breaking into an NDP office, allegedly for nostalgia reasons.