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There is a “love hate” relationship with policital parties. There are many who “hate” the fact that party MPs or MPPs are loyal to the parties and not to their consituents. On the other hand, there are many who see Independent Candidates has having a harder time winning elections.
We are now seeing “parties of independent candidates”. For example, in Ontario, in the October 2011 election, Onarians were introduced to the Canadians Choice Party – a party of Independent Candidates. In Quebec, the CAQ is a party (at least according to the following article) formed largely from Independent Candidates.
See the following article:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1085378–a-powerful-new-party-rises-in-quebec
In June, he dumped the Parti Québécois, for which he acted as the immigration critic and is sitting as an independent for the riding of Deux Montagnes, northwest of Montreal. But over the summer, he said, he found himself more and more captivated by the new Coalition pour l’avenir du Québec.
“I find it interesting, and I think many Quebecers are on the same page,” Charette said. “For the first time in 40 years we are proposing to bring people together on a base different from the national question. It’s refreshing.”
Come the next legislative session early in 2012, he and a handful of other independents and members of the rightist party Action démocratique du Québec, could become members of the CAQ. Read more…
In last week’s provincial election in Ontario, I held my nose and voted for the incumbent.
What irked me was not his integrity or dedication to public service, both well-proved, but that along the way, this once-bright-eyed idealist had been slapped by his party to show him who was boss. After a one-year stint as minister, he was chucked out of office. From that day on, he become party property. A conscionable person became a mouthpiece who stuck out his nose only to be led by it – a hack.
Worse, this hollowing out is commonplace – the fate of all those who pursue their ideals through our party system. Read more…
Gordon Gibson
We are now well into one of our occasionally scheduled games of “futures markets in stolen property,” otherwise known as an election. (Thank you, H.L. Mencken.) The promises are flying.
Stripped of all the fine words, the parties all come to us with a remarkable proposition: “We will confiscate a goodly portion of your hard-earned money and remove it to Ottawa. There we will launder and shrink it and then return some of it to you. We will also issue a series of orders called laws and regulations that will tell you what to do with your lives. You may now say thank you.” Read more…
November 21, 2010
Susan Delacourt
A group of climate change activists chant on the front steps of Centre Block after being removed by security personnel from the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa October 26, 2009.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/894307–is-canadian-democracy-in-real-danger
OTTAWA—What does Canada’s Parliament have in common with the Toronto Maple Leafs?
Both still have their true believers, according to political scientist David Docherty. But around this time of year, annually it seems, Leaf fans and fans of Parliament are coming to the same, sinking conclusion.
“Every season starts out with so much promise,” Docherty told a roomful of political-science experts on Friday in Ottawa.
“And then, ’round about November,” they’re out of the playoff picture. “And around about November, after a few weeks of the House being in session, you think: ‘Nah, this isn’t the year either.’ ”
It has been a bad month for people like Docherty, who believe that the House of Commons should be the centrepiece of Canada’s democracy.
This past week, it was the unelected Conservative senators audaciously killing a climate-change bill passed by a clear majority of elected MPs in the House of Commons. Read more…
A maverick Alberta MLA and doctor who went public recently with criticisms of his own government’s healthcare policies has been kicked out of his party, a move panned by opposition parties as “pathetic” and a “dark day for democracy” in the province.
Raj Sherman, an emergency room doctor who entered politics just two years ago, went public last week criticizing the government’s sluggish response to what other physicians have called a “crisis” in emergency room overcrowding. The province’s emergency room wait times (particularly in Calgary and Edmonton) are far above the government’s own targets, and doctors have begun speaking out calling for reform to ease crowding. Read more…
“No member of our caucus, whatever other title they have, is allowed to invent their own policy,” said Mr. Mulcair. “We take decisions together, parties formulate policies together, and to say that you’re personally in favour of boycott, divestment and sanctions for the only democracy in the Middle East is, as far as I’m concerned, grossly unacceptable.”
Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service · Tuesday, Jun. 15, 2010
NDP deputy leader Libby Davies is in trouble with her own caucus over comments she made at an anti-Israeli protest when she appeared to question the Jewish state’s right to exist, while also suggesting that she believes it should face a boycott and sanctions. Read more…
He’s done it again.
An MP widely considered invisible at best, and horrible at worst, has been saved from local rejection after party headquarters denied his own riding directors the chance to shop for a better Conservative candidate.
For reasons the national office will not explain, the Conservatives have thrown blanket protection over Calgary West MP Rob Anders to enforce his apparently unalienable right to carry their banner into the next election.
Not only did the party shut down any risk of the incumbent suffering a pre-election dumping, but last weekend it seized control of local membership lists, the cash box and the power to call an annual general meeting, shutting down a volunteer association elected only last March by Conservatives at large.
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