Minority government and constitutional convention.

• Author: Russell, Peter
• Position: Viewpoint essay

Four years of minority government have introduced serious strains on Canada's parliamentary institutions. This article suggests what needs to be done to strengthen parliamentary institutions whether the electorate returns a minority or a majority parliament.

In January 2010 the United Kingdom's Institute for Government issued a report entitled, Making Minority Government Work. The report aims at preparing the United Kingdom for a minority government that may well result from an election due later this year. The research team who wrote the report visited Westminster parliamentary jurisdictions that have had experience with minority government in recent years: namely Canada, New Zealand and Scotland. Its chapter on Canada is headed "Canada's Dysfunctional Minority Parliament." Its message to British parliamentarians is that if you want to learn how not to operate a minority parliament take a good look at Canada. (1)

The UK report analyzes the problem as being essentially behavioral. It concludes its chapter on Canada with this statement: "For minority government to work in Canada there needs to be a dramatic shift in political culture which emphasizes cooperation and accommodation rather than conflict and partisanship."

Anyone watching the performance of Canada's federal Parliament over the last few years would come to the same conclusion: Canada's parliamentary democracy is in very bad health. With three elections in five years and a fourth looming, Canada is becoming the world's only parliamentary democracy operating on a two-year election cycle. With the government party and the official opposition pre-occupied with preparing the ground for the next election, the cross-party co-operation required to make a minority parliament functional has been totally lacking.

As a result, in my view, the Canadian Parliament has not been fulfilling its function of leading public debate on the great issues of the day such as our military effort in Afghanistan, climate change and carbon emissions or the fiscal melt down and its economic and social consequences. Nor has it been able to consider and pass legislation dealing with any of these matters.

My first suggestion about what needs to be done makes me feel a little bit like an old school master going out into the school yard and yelling "tone it down" at the boys leading the two biggest gangs scuffling in the school yard. But I do say to the Prime Minister and to the Leader of the Opposition, the two...