Fixing Canadian Democracy
Author | : Fraser Institute (Vancouver, B.C.) |
Publisher | : The Fraser Institute |
Total Pages | : 284 |
Release | : 2003 |
Genre | : Canada |
ISBN | : 088975201X |
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Author | : Fraser Institute (Vancouver, B.C.) |
Publisher | : The Fraser Institute |
Total Pages | : 284 |
Release | : 2003 |
Genre | : Canada |
ISBN | : 088975201X |
Author | : Norm Bazinet |
Publisher | : Library and Archives Canada |
Total Pages | : 0 |
Release | : 2024-02-14 |
Genre | : |
ISBN | : 9781777985608 |
Federal power in Canada has been concentrated in the office of an unaccountable Prime Minister. This problem developed in two steps. This first step occurred when political parties allowed the party membership to select their leader at a leadership convention. This put the party leader in charge of the caucus rather than the caucus in control of the leader. Originally, the caucus elected the party leader as required under the British Westminster model. To seal this process, Pierre Trudeau modified the Canada Elections Act to require that a political candidate must have their application signed by the party leader. The second step occurred when politicians circumvented the constitutional conventions that form part of the Canadian Constitution. These conventions were adopted from Great Britain and form the governing principles under which Parliament operates. The conventions are unwritten and cannot be enforced in the courts. The British have never allowed this to happen in their country. In addition, our politicians adamantly maintain the first-past-the-post electoral system that yields fake majorities in more than 50% of elections with only 38% of the popular vote. To fix our broken democracy, Canada should adopt electoral reform and concordance democracy. These changes would put governance back under the rules of the Westminster model. Government would become accountable and less confrontational. The country would be more united and everyone's vote would count. These changes can be added to our existing political system without any constitutional amendments. Ideally, an elected Senate (which would require a constitutional amendment) would also bring an additional element of democracy to the table. An implementation procedure is proposed that activists can use to bring these changes forward.
Author | : Donald J. Savoie |
Publisher | : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP |
Total Pages | : 432 |
Release | : 2019-09-02 |
Genre | : Political Science |
ISBN | : 0228000416 |
Canada's representative democracy is confronting important challenges. At the top of the list is the growing inability of the national government to perform its most important roles: namely mapping out collective actions that resonate in all regions as well as enforcing these measures. Others include Parliament's failure to carry out important responsibilities, an activist judiciary, incessant calls for greater transparency, the media's rapidly changing role, and a federal government bureaucracy that has lost both its way and its standing. Arguing that Canadians must reconsider the origins of their country in order to understand why change is difficult and why they continue to embrace regional identities, Democracy in Canada explains how Canada's national institutions were shaped by British historical experiences, and why there was little effort to bring Canadian realities into the mix. As a result, the scope and size of government and Canadian federalism have taken on new forms largely outside the Constitution. Parliament and now even Cabinet have been pushed aside so that policy makers can design and manage the modern state. This also accounts for the average citizen's belief that national institutions cater to economic elites, to these institutions' own members, and to interest groups at citizens' own expense. A masterwork analysis, Democracy in Canada investigates the forces shaping the workings of Canadian federalism and the country's national political and bureaucratic institutions.
Author | : J. Peter Meekison |
Publisher | : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP |
Total Pages | : 527 |
Release | : 2004 |
Genre | : Canada |
ISBN | : 1553390083 |
Beginning with an examination of the role of traditional institutions such as Parliament, Cabinet, the Supreme Court, and political parties, Canada: State of the Federation 2002 affirms the long-held belief that these bodies do not provide effective forums for interregional bargaining, creating a void that has been filled at least in part by executive federalism. Contributors conclude that the performance of traditional institutions, taken as a whole, has deteriorated over the last several decades, placing more pressure on the processes of executive federalism.
Author | : Jason Roy |
Publisher | : University of Toronto Press |
Total Pages | : 261 |
Release | : 2020 |
Genre | : Canada |
ISBN | : 148752501X |
In this work, the authors employ a series of experiments to assess the strategies used to win elections and stay in power once elected.
Author | : Annie Murray Hannay |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 650 |
Release | : 1940 |
Genre | : Industrial policy |
ISBN | : |
Author | : David R. Cameron |
Publisher | : University of Toronto Press |
Total Pages | : 326 |
Release | : 2021-11-17 |
Genre | : Canada |
ISBN | : 1487524218 |
The Daily Plebiscite offers a multi-faceted analysis of Canada's national unity crisis from the perspective of someone who lived through it all.
Author | : Donald J. Savoie |
Publisher | : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP |
Total Pages | : 382 |
Release | : 2015-08-01 |
Genre | : Political Science |
ISBN | : 0773597956 |
Recent decades have shown the public's support for government plummet alongside political leaders’ credibility. This downward spiral calls for an exploration of what has gone wrong. The questions, "What is government good at?" and "What is government not good at?" are critical ones - and their answers should be the basis for good public policy and public administration. In What Is Government Good At?, Donald Savoie argues that politicians and public servants are good at generating and avoiding blame, playing to a segment of the population to win the next election, embracing and defending the status quo, adding management layers and staff, keeping ministers out of trouble, responding to demands from the prime minister and his office, and managing a complex, prime minister-centred organization. Conversely, they are not as good at defining the broader public interest, providing and recognizing evidence-based policy advice, managing human and financial resources with efficiency and frugality, innovating and reforming itself, being accountable to Parliament and to citizens, dealing with non-performers, paying sufficient attention to service delivery, and implementing and evaluating the impact of policies and programs. With wide implications for representative democracy, What Is Government Good At? is a persuasive analysis of an approach to government that has opened the door to those with the resources to influence policy and decision-making while leaving average citizens on the outside looking in.
Author | : Grahame Booker |
Publisher | : Springer Nature |
Total Pages | : 306 |
Release | : 2022-10-31 |
Genre | : Business & Economics |
ISBN | : 3031168836 |
Classical liberalism has typically sought to maintain as much room as possible for the exercise of personal initiative in the face of the encroachment of states. This book explores these questions of coercion and authority in the context of the size and scope of the state and argues that the state and its agents should be held to the same moral rules as are the individuals it rules over. The book considers how a distinct feature of the state is its police or coercive power, about which one may ask how the state acquires it and what if anything would justify its use. It considers the implication that there is nothing inherent about state agents that entitles one to behave in ways that we would not accept from a private actor, and how once that argument is made, the state’s claim to authority is weakened. The author also discusses the extent to which democracy has been thought to provide any sort of justification for coercion or authority. This book will be of interest to academics and students of political philosophy, especially classical liberalism, and legal philosophy.
Author | : Mike Harris |
Publisher | : The Fraser Institute |
Total Pages | : 378 |
Release | : 2007 |
Genre | : Canada |
ISBN | : 0889752230 |