Federal Election

Well, Canada's within a few days of a federal election. Again.

I, as a general rule, try to keep my ass out of politics. I'm a scientist, not a politician. I have some opinions on the matter, and I like to think that I can contribute meaningfully to a conversation about politics when the occasion arises, but in terms of actually playing a role in the process, I tend to butt out.

There is, however, something about the Canadian election process about which I was unaware prior to this election (in part because it wasn't really a possibility in any election in my lifetime), namely that it's possible for the party in power to remain the party in power, even if they have fewer seats in parliament than another party.

For the last ten years, the Liberal party in Canada has held a majority parliament (for the yankees out there, that means that the Liberal party has had more than 50% of the seats in the house of commons). Now, the idea of a majority parliament is something I object to on principle. I feel that it gives too much power to one specific group of people. Suffice it to say that in a minority parliament (where no one party has more than 50% of the seats in the house of commons), the parties are forced to compromise. No one group can overrule the others, so on any bill they have to find a middle ground; something that all parties and all viewpoints agree on, or at least agree on enough to pass the bill. The problem I have with the electoral process is what happens when the Canadian citizens elect a minority government.

At that point, the serving governor general gets to decide who will serve as the party in power, even if that party has fewer seats in the house than another party.

There are two things I find rather disturbing about this.

1) The party in power does not have to have the support of the majority of Canadian citizens, or even the support of more Canadian citizens than another party. They can become the party in power even if they have the support of fewer Canadian citizens than another party. This strikes me as fundamentally undemocratic.

2) This means that the system is geared to favor a majority parliament, which I've already mentioned I object to on principle.

Either way, the next few days should be interesting.