Democracy in Canada

In October, there was a Federal election in Canada, which was won by the Conservatives.  The problem was that as there are 4 viable parties in Canada - the Conservatives, while winning the most seats did not win a majority of seats, so they can be defeated if all the other parties vote together.

Data from - http://www.sfu.ca/~aheard/elections/results.html

So the Conservatives were sworn in as the Government and have governed since. 

Last week, in responding to the financial crisis, Prime Minister Stephen Harper decided to take advantage of the situation and using the excuse of “tough economic times”, the Finance Minister announced measures that eliminated the public funding for all political parties, as well as removing the legal right to strike for civil servants, in what has been perceived by many political pundits (both left and right) as a blatant partisan move - (neither move has any significant impact on the economy).

Now there is a constitutional crisis as the other three parties with seats in Parliament have united to attempt to overthrow the government – combined they have 163 seats to the Conservatives 143.  The Liberals and NDP have signed an agreement that they will provide the option of a Coalition Government, and the Bloc Quebecois while not agreeing to part of the coalition, have agreed to support the other two parties for 18 months.

Conservatives are crying fowl, saying this is un-democratic, but wait they only have 143 seats, less than 50%, and they were supported by 38% of the voters, so what is more democratic, a Conservative government supported by 38% of the voters or a Liberal/NDP government supported by 44% of the voters. 

If the Bloc’s votes are included, and as mentioned above they have agreed to support the Liberal/NDP coalition for 18 months, the three parties combined have more than 50% of the seats and 54% of the votes, so again I ask – which is more democratic?

One can certainly argue that the three parties were each rejected by a majority of voters, but the same can be said for the Conservatives – 38% does not constitute a ringing endorsement, but while the Conservatives seem intent on partisan solutions to the Economic troubles, the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois are offering a tri-partisan cooperative approach.

The next few days will be interesting, as this all plays out.  Will we have to go the polls again in the new year, or will we have a coalition government for the first time since 1917.