Mr. Martin's Action Plan for Democratic Reform in a North American Context

A major theme in recent international relations literature - economics, business, public administration, and political science alike - is that globalization leads to interconnectedness, which ultimately drives a convergence of systems of governance. While the Canadian and American systems have been tightly interconnected for some time now, this necessarily includes widespread state-province relations because both systems are federations. (Swanson 1978:22) The extensive power of the provinces, indeed, is one factor that has likely inhibited further harmonization of the two systems (Hale 2004) and, after the failed Meech Lake and Charlottetown processes, this seems likely to remain the norm. Nevertheless, the recent trend is certainly toward convergence, as exemplified by the impact of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, (Ajzenstat 2003: 118) the North American Free Trade Agreement, and extensive security cooperation since September 11, 2001.

While contending to become the new leader of the Liberal party in Canada, Paul Martin discovered that fixing Canada's "democratic deficit" was not a hard sell within the Liberal ranks. In particular, he focused on democracy within the House of Commons, largely reflecting the belief that power was overly centralized in the Prime Minister's Office. Martin's approach ignored broader issues of Canadian democracy such as electoral reform, (Studlar 2003) the triple-E Senate, (Joyal 2003) and the immense power of the public service. When he became Prime Minister, Martin acted on this core campaign promise to fellow Liberals by introducing Ethics, Responsibility, Accountability: An Action Plan for Democratic Reform on February 4, 2004. (Canada 2004) Four months later he became the leader of a minority coalition government, not the norm in Canadian parliamentary history, and a particular challenge to parliamentary reform.

With the publica...

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