Parliamentary Reform
The controversy around whether Canadian Forces sent prisoners of war to countries that torture only serves to highlight the systemic problems facing our national institutions.
I think it’s time to put Parliamentary Reform back on the Conservative agenda!
As Andrew Coyne, Paul Wells and others have pointed out very succinctly, there are some serious issues with the current system, including:
Inherent Conflicts in Selecting Cabinet Minister’s from the ranks of MPs
Does an MP work for their constituents, their party or their leader? Is it reasonable to expect a person to juggle good service to their constituents as an MP with good service as a Cabinet Minister? If you are the Minister responsible for something that gets delivered in your riding (cash, a project, or a contract), did you only do so because it was your riding? What about when it doesn’t get delivered to your riding? Should your constituents punish you?
Strict Party Discipline
MPs wanting to make their mark are held to strict party discipline to ever have a hope of getting into Cabinet. If they break rank too often, there is the lingering possibility the leader may not sign their nomination papers the next election.
It might be nice if more free votes were allowed, but niceness doesn’t address the systemic problems.
Concentration of Power in the PMO
With strict party discipline comes concentration of power in the PMO. The PMO is the strongest institution in any democratic state in the world (within its own borders). This is unnecessary, and potentially dangerous. Any Prime Minister should recognize that (a) they haven’t got all the answers, (b) the next Prime Minister might not be as great (honest, upstanding, ideologically correct) as they are, and (c) it is undemocratic. As such, this concentration of power is not ideal to the current PM (whomever they are). I’m sure if Chretien could see into the Conservative future, he would have thought twice about the increasing power of the PMO under his watch.
Powerless Committees
As last week revealed, committees are a joke. For crying out loud, committees should be more than who called who fat on Twitter.
Our Ridiculous Senate
Blame for the lack of progress made to date on Senate Reform rests squarely on the Liberal establishment in the Senate. It is my sincere hope that progress will be made once the Liberal majority there is finally eradicated. There is a plan to deal with it, and if all the participants put in place do their job, this should go well. If they do not follow through, they will only prove themselves more shameful than the Liberals.
The Bad Guys in the Mainstream Media
While the media is no doubt to blame for exacerbating the problem, they are not the cause. If an MP breaks ranks with their party, the media is usually the first to yell out insubordination! Yes, we choose representatives of parties, but we also choose individuals – individuals with different opinions and different ideas. It would be downright creepy if everyone in a party agreed on everything, failing the Robot Party of Canada, of course.
It is absolutely fair game for the media to call out an MP if their party promised X in an election campaign, and they voted against it. But if it wasn’t promised in an election campaign, that MP should be free to vote as they please, and it’s up to the electors in that MP’s riding, as to whether or not they approve. The issue itself may be newsworthy, but an MP’s position on it isn’t really comparable to World War III.
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