Duff Conacher wants to strengthen the role of members of Parliament in checking prime ministerial power, and so do I (“One and a Half Cheers,” September 2008). The main difference between us is that I think electing parliaments in which no party has a majority in the House of Commons is our best bet for strengthening the power of MPs, whereas he prefers a dubious legislative program for regulating parliamentary affairs.
Among the laws Conacher wants passed are statutes regulating confidence votes and the nomination of political party candidates, and another “requiring Cabinet to consult meaningfully with the public—and make the results public—before any significant decision is taken.” The latter sounds like government by plebiscite. All of these laws would, of course, be interpreted by the courts. I would prefer to let Parliament itself develop its practices and procedures more informally.
To say that majority governments “have been all powerful and unfettered” would indeed be an overstatement. But it is not a claim I make. My argument is that since the Trudeau years there has been a marked trend toward a system of prime ministerial government in which power is concentrated, as never before, in the Prime Minister’s Office. I believe that this trend is most likely to be arrested by minority governments that must work with other parliamentary parties to produce policies that a majority of Canadians support.
Was I guilty of overstatement in claiming that nine of the twelve minority governments we have had at the federal level were able to achieve a good deal? Conacher would deny that Mackenzie King’s three minority governments achieved very much. Maybe he has a point about King’s 1925–26 government that was brought down by the customs scandal. But that minority government, collaborating with Labour and Progressive members, was preparing the innovative legislative program of his third minority government. If King does not score high in the number of laws passed during his first three administrations, it is not because his party lacked a majority in the House, but because he was a cautious politician even when he had a majority and Canada in the 1920s was just emerging into a era of legislative activism.
My main point about the effectiveness of minority governments is that what they get done represents policies favoured by a majority of the electorate, whereas the accomplishments of majority governments typically respond to the views of 40 percent of the electorate. I prefer being governed in a more inclusive way. I trust Duff Conacher does too.
Peter Russell
Toronto, Ontario
