Concluding Thoughts on the Law of Canadian Democracy

• Author: Craig Forcese/Aaron Freeman
• Pages: 616-620

Concluding Thoughts

on the

Law of

Canadian

Democracy

How

best

to

evaluate Canadian democracy?

The

answer

to

this question

depends

on

which criteria

are

used,

and

which democratic principles

one

chooses

to

emphasize.

In

keeping with

the

structure laid

out in

this book,

in

this concluding

chapter

we

examine

the

performance

of

Canadian democracy

by

focusing

first

on the

democratic selection

of

representatives

and

second

on the

rela-

tionship between these individuals

and

their unelected counterparts.

We

then conclude with

a few

thoughts

on the

relationship between

law and

democracy.

A.

THE

DEMOCRATIC SELECTION

OF

OFFICIALS

Canadian electoral

law is, in

significant

ways,

the

envy

of

many nations

around

the

world. Compared

to

other countries,

we

have reasonably clean

elections

and a

stable system

of

governance. Recent changes

to

political

fundraising

rules limit

the

influence

of

wealthy

interests

in

elections

and

improve disclosure

of

electoral finance, although gaps

remain

in

several

areas, including

trust

funds

and

leadership races.

On

the

other hand,

our

level

of

civic

engagement

—

including

our

voter participation rate

— is

lower than that

of

many other nations.

As

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