The coalition crisis and competing visions of Canadian democracy.

• Author: Bonga, Melissa
• Position: Column

In November 2008, barely six weeks after a federal general election returned another Conservative minority Parliament, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty gave a fall fiscal update. It contained contentious provisions to curtail government spending, such as the suspension of federal servants' right to strike until 2011 and the elimination of the $1.95 per vote subsidy to support political parties. Despite the global economic recession the update did not include a stimulus package which the opposition parties thought was essential to minimize the effects of the global downturn. The result was a non confidence motion, the drafting of an opposition coalition agreement to replace the government and the prorogation of Parliament by the Governor General until January 2009. This paper examines these events and argues that while the attempted coalition was compatible with Canadian parliamentary democracy, it failed largely because of a competing vision of democracy held by many Canadians.

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In order to pass legislation, a government that does not hold the majority of seats in the House of Commons needs to promote policies that have the widest possible range of acceptance so that it can garner the majority of MPs' support. From this perspective, the fall 2008 fiscal update should have attempted to reflect the will of the 61.4 percent of the electorate that did not vote for the Conservative minority government. Based on the traditional opposition's role in the Canadian parliamentary system, the opposition parties possessed a legitimate right to represent their supporters by contesting the provisions of the fall fiscal update.

The opposition parties' reaction of moving nonconfidence and of creating a coalition agreement also conforms to principles of Canadian Parliamentary Democracy. The lynch-pin principle of parliamentary democracy is responsible government, which means that the government is accountable to the MPs in the House of Commons and through the MPs to the electorate. Professor C.E.S. Franks explains the concept of responsible government as indicating that

the safeguard against [Cabinet's] abuse lies in the relationship between parliament and government...ministers are not only responsible for the use of [their] powers, but are also responsible and accountable to parliament. Parliament, and particularly the House of Commons, is consequently ... the source of the legitimacy and authority of a government ... A cabinet must have the support of a majority in parliament. (1) According to this explanation of responsible government, the support of the opposition parties is a necessary source of legitimacy. The fall fiscal update would lead to a money bill, and in declaring non-confidence, the opposition parties in the House declared that they would not vote to support the government's financial legislation. A vote of nonconfidence can have either of two consequences. Either the Prime Minister may request that the governor general dissolve Parliament, or the governor general can under certain conditions call upon the official opposition to govern if it demonstrates viable support of the House.

Thus, if the government was defeated, Governor General Michaelle Jean had the power to call upon the official opposition, the Liberals, to form government. The Coalition believed Prime Minister Stephen Harper could not object to the constitutionality of the approach in light of his own letter to the Governor General when he was in opposition, indicating the governor general should consider all her options in the event of a loss of non confidence as the opposition parties were in close consultation.

The opposition parties' refusal to support the economic legislation was a legitimate exercise of their constitutional role under the principle of responsible government. However, the official opposition must demonstrate that they are a viable alternative to the government. Given that the Liberal party did not command the plurality of seats in the House, and the party's historically weak performance in the last federal election, the opposition's viability depended on the formation of a partnership with the other opposition parties. Also, considering that the public had very recently participated in an election, the possibility of another costly expenditure was unfavourable to the public during a time of economic uncertainty. The public's unwillingness to have another election was another factor in precipitating the proposal for a coalition government so that another election would not be called upon the Prime Minister's resignation. Therefore, the opposition's formation of a coalition in November 2008 was compatible with principles of Canadian parliamentary democracy.

While the attempt to form a Liberal-NDP coalition government with Bloc support was compatible with...