FELDSTED: MPs who analyze the legislation they are dealing with, and propose amendments, are ostracised as not being ‘team players’

Canadian Politics Has Entered Era Of 'Extreme Partisanship': Samara Report

By Zi-Ann Lum  ~~  Huffington Post  ~~  0/31/2018

OTTAWA — Politics is ingrained in an era of "extreme partisanship" and unless parliamentarians tone down "anti-democratic" rivalries, public confidence in federal parties will deteriorate, warns a new report by the Samara Centre for Democracy.

The Toronto-based non-partisan charity published a report Wednesday titled "The Real House Lives," encouraging parties adopt changes to limit the influence party leaders have over caucus members. The Samara Centre interviewed 54 former MPs from the last Parliament who were swept from office after the Liberals won a majority mandate in 2015.

Jane Hilderman, the organization's executive editor, said it was surprising to hear MPs say they saw partisanship intensify in the last Parliament. She said several MPs claimed the relationship between MP and party leader had grown even more unequal in caucus.

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My Opinion?   

The Samara Report is a couple of decades late. Elections were once run on the ground in electoral districts (ridings), but TV and the Internet have changed that dramatically. We are flooded by political party advertising dominated by highlighting the party leader.

In five decades of participating in federal elections, I have never seen nasty partisan politics equal to the 2015 campaign -- it reminded me of the lyrics from a Johnny Cash song, “A Boy Named Sue”:

Well I hit him hard right between the eyes

And he went down but to my surprise

He came up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear

But I busted a chair right across his teeth

And we crashed through the wall and into the street

Kicking and a’ gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer

I tell ya, I’ve fought tougher men, but I really can’t remember when

He kicked like a mule and bit like a crocodile....

Partisan politics cause us to lose all sense of reality, and it gives us no chance to compare the positions of political parties on key issues that matter to us.

We need to know what each party’s governance plans are – budgets, deficits, public safety, taxation, immigration, health care, support for seniors and low-income people, reductions in bureaucracy and regulations, development of our resources and other things that matter most to Canadians.

Partisan politics allow political parties to avoid the nitty gritty, and then later claim they have ‘a mandate to govern’ when they don’t.

The party that wins the most seats forms a Cabinet to run government.

But, does that Cabinet make governance decisions, in consultation with all elected party MPs?  NO, it does not!  What we get instead is the party leader, now Prime Minister, together with party officials and select unelected advisors dictating to Cabinet what they want.  Then, that Cabinet shames the rest into obedience.

How is that democratically representing the electorate and society?

Partisan bickering continues in sittings of the House of Commons, making the work of committees (where the real work of parliament is done) more difficult. Those Committees are certainly not efficient, or effective.  Instead, politicians and staffers, at the Committee level are too busy gaining an edge on the ‘other guys’.

Rivalry between the MPs for appointments and positions is as old as parliament, and it is intensified by their mistreatment by party bosses.  But ... they did not run for office, and win their seat, to be marginalized when they arrive in Ottawa.

Run the numbers:

There are 338 seats in the House of Commons (HOC). A political party has win at least 170 seats to form a majority government, and needs 180 seats for a comfortable majority. The governing liberals have 182 seats. Only 35 are members of cabinet (including the Prime Minister). Another 37 are named parliamentary secretaries. The secretaries are subservient to the Ministers. The remaining 110 Liberal MPs sit on one or more committees, but their participation is managed by party staffers and Ministers.

Independent opinion and thinking are frowned on … and MPs who analyze the legislation they are dealing with, and propose amendments, are ostracised as not being ‘team players’. 

The numbers for opposition parties are smaller, but follow the same pattern. It is fair to surmise that at least 200 elected MPs have little voice in the parties they represent and none in governance decisions. That is appalling and unacceptable.

After each election a Prime Minister chooses a cabinet. Pundits and the media speculate on who will represent the cabinet from each province, and whether enough women will be included.

Why not pick the best person for the job?

The cabinet exists to serve all Canadians, not regions or provinces. Why have we been sidetracked into appeasing regions rather than seeking effective governance?  After all, the Senate is formed along regional lines, and that is where and how regions are protected.

Our Parliament has deteriorated into an oligarchy, with nearly 60% of elected members having no voice in proceedings. Democracy has been stolen from us, and sadly, many of those who demand a change to elections, to ‘fix’ parliament, have no idea how the institution operates.

The problem is abuse of power by unelected political party officials, not how we elect representatives. Proportional representation will only make matters far worse.

The solution is simple; get rid of the fog, smog, smoke and mirrors -- ban all political party election advertising except at electoral district level, where we vote for our representatives.

Political parties use huge sums of your donations to hire advertising agencies and pollsters, so they can appeal to feelings, and fuel indignation and outrage, rather than setting out their plans for governance. We are voting based on slick advertising and social media gossip rather than vital information on governance plans. Trolls on social media influence our elections because we too readily accept rumours as fact.

Political parties moan about low voter turnouts, but they are the problem. An increasing number of electors are done with electing a representative who winds up marginalized despite sound thinking ability, common sense and substantial abilities. We are stifling hundreds of years of experience, and ability, that can only lead us to better governance.

The few dozen political party officials, who have clawed their way into position of power within political parties, have gained power over governments and our elected representatives.

Shame on us for allowing it.

John Feldsted

Political Consultant & Strategist

Winnipeg, Manitoba