Need for constitutional change

So here it is, the day after parliament has been prorogued until the end of January...

Of course, here in Alberta, home of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), there has been nothing but anger at the other three parties, with the vast majority supporting Harper and his party. I'd like to think that with my Political Science background that I have a more objective viewpoint than the average citizen, especially as I'm more centre left, despite having gone to the University of Calgary, where the modern ideology of the CPC was determined.

What is the most striking element is the increased regionalism because of this whole thing - mostly due to the methods that Harper used to maintain his hold on power. In invoking the words "separtists", he has isolated Quebec and alienated western Canada from the east in general and Quebec and Ontario specifically.

Personally, I view myself as Canadian. Period. I do not identify myself as a Calgarian, or an Alberta. They are places where I live, but if the right job came to me, I would move to several different regions in this country. And guess what - when I was living in Asia, Canadians identify themselves as Canadians, not "Albertans" or "Torontonians" or "Quebecois".

The fundamental failure of the current first-past-the-post system of government in Canada is that it creates regional differences due to the way power is distrubuted. Seats are distributed by attempting to evenly divide the popluation by a set number of seats. So of course Ontario and Quebec get the lion's share. It is unlikely that Alberta, B.C. or any other province will ever catch up to them and even out the distrubution. As a result, regional grievences have arisen due to unequal sharing of power (I'm ignoring the distrubution of wealth through transfer payments). Parties, such as the Bloc Quebecois and the Alliance Party rose up precisly because of the poor distrubtion of power. In the Bloc's case, it was because the Francaphone population felt isolated from English speaking Canada. The Alliance Party, on the other hand, was an attempt to push policies that a significant number of western Canadian's wanted.

With the current crisis, it seems that the calls for separation, either by Quebec, or by people in the west (despite the fact that they are being hypocritical for calling the Bloc as "traitors" because they want to separate) will be a major issue over the holidays. Maybe the next couple of months will calm people down, but I think that the system as it is is breaking.

I personally don't believe that Canada will be able to have a fully functioning government until these issues are addressed. The Canadian public has become to diverse in it opinions and regional interests are trumping national ones. People who have different opinions than the majority in specific regions (say Liberal or Green supporters in Alberta) are totally marginallized by the current system, and my feelings are that the poor showing for voting in elections is precisily because many people feel that their vote has zero influence on who forms the government or which policies are enacted (the $1.95 for the party voted on notwithstanding).

As such I am personally wanting to see Canada move towards a system of proportional representation (PR). While the Liberal Party and the CPC are against PR, because they both dream of regaining majority governments, both the NDP and Green parties support this system. More info about PR can be found at Fair Vote Canada.

If Canadians can push towards this system, I fully believe that a more cooperative and functional government in Canada can be achieved, with all people in Canada being better represented.

Why bother voting again?

Here is a thought for all the people who are arguing that the coalition by the Liberal, NDP and Bloc parties should be voted on (or conversely, that Harper should still be allowed to govern): why bother?

If you take the results from the last election several weeks ago, only 60% of Canadians bothered to vote. Even with the situation as it is, do people really expect the results of the last vote to significantly change? If anything I'd argue that the vote will remain pretty close to what it was.

So, parliament resumes - and it reaches the same point as it currently is at (plus or minus a few seats from each party). It is unlikely that the CPC would gain enough seats to change anything, so again an attempt to form a coalition would occur. All we would've done in this case is wasted another $350 million, and another four to six weeks that could've been used to forumlate plans to manuever the country out financial troubles.