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From: John Feldsted <jfeldsted@shaw.ca><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> BELOW(30)(30)(30)(30)(30)(30)(30)(30)(30)(30)(30)30)(30)(30)(30)(30)(30)
Subject: Canadian Politics Has Entered Era Of 'Extreme Partisanship': Samara Report "It’s territorial."By Zi-Ann Lum
Huffington Post
0/31/2018
OTTAWA Politics is ingrained in an era of "extreme partisanship" and unless parliamentarians tone down "anti-democratic" rivalries, public confidence in federal parties will deteriorate, warns a new report by the Samara Centre for Democracy.
The Toronto-based non-partisan charity published a report Wednesday titled "The Real House Lives," encouraging parties adopt changes to limit the influence party leaders have over caucus members. The Samara Centre interviewed 54 former MPs from the last Parliament who were swept from office after the Liberals won a majority mandate in 2015.
Jane Hilderman, the organization's executive editor, said it was surprising to hear MPs say they saw partisanship intensify in the last Parliament. She said several MPs claimed the relationship between MP and party leader had grown even more unequal in caucus.
"I think we've entered an age of leader-centric politics," Hilderman told HuffPost Canada, adding that a new level of self-censorship is permeating Parliament, increasing partisanship.
"MPs weren't necessarily getting heat from their leader, but that they were getting from their own colleagues if they were seen to be stepping a little out of line," she explained.
Samara Canada spoke to former MPs from all parties across the country: 25 from the NDP, 23 Tories, three Liberals, and three Green and independent MPs. With more than 100 hours of interviews collected, authors threaded the 50-page report with stories shared by former MPs, but didn't attribute names to quotes.
"The Real House Lives" is the third report in a series published in concert with the organization's ongoing exit interview project. Hilderman called its finding a "bellweather" for what might come if federal parties fail to take timely action.
"Trust in democratic institutions and facts is decreasing and I think that Canada is not immune to these things," she said.
Frustrations flagged by the former MPs were distilled into six general issues: extreme partisanship, useless caucus deliberations, unchecked party leaders, intense peer pressure, shrinking local party associations, and the growing influence of staffers.
An atmosphere of extreme partisanship was evident for one MP who said when they arrived in Ottawa in 2011, their cohort immediately settled into cliques. And as plum party roles were awarded and reassessed, people's competitive edges began to flare.
"People silo-ed. Like, they'd be given a role and they'd go into protectionism.... It's territorial. You don't keep your ministerial role or parliamentary secretarial role for long and the general assumption is that everybody wants your job."
Read on – its worth it: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/10/31/canadian-politics-has-entered-era-of-extreme-partisanship-samara-report_a_23576385/?utm_campaign=canada_newsletter
The report is a couple of decades late. Elections were once run on the ground in electoral districts (ridings) but TV and the Internet have changed that dramatically. We are flooded by political party advertising dominated by highlighting the party leader.
In five decades of participating in federal elections, I have never seen nasty partisan politics equal to the 2015 campaign. I was reminded of the lyrics from a Johnny Cash song:
Well I hit him hard right between the eyes
And he went down but to my surprise
He came up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear
But I busted a chair right across his teeth
And we crashed through the wall and into the street
Kicking and a’ gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer
I tell ya, I’ve fought tougher men, but I really can’t remember when
He kicked like a mule and bit like a crocodile
Partisan politics cause us to lose all sense of reality. We have no chance to compare the positions of political parties on key issues that matter to us.
We need to know what each party’s governance plans are – budgets, deficits, public safety, taxation, immigration, health care, support for seniors and low income people, reductions in bureaucracy and regulations, development of our resources and other things that matter most to Canadians.
Partisan politics allow political parties to avoid the nitty gritty and later claim they have ‘a mandate to govern’ when they don’t. The party that wins the most seats forms a cabinet to run government. The cabinet should be making governance decisions in consultation with all elected party MPs.
What we get instead is the party leader, now Prime Minister, together with party officials and select unelected advisors dictating to cabinet what they want and the cabinet shaming the rest into obedience. How is that democratically representing the electorate and society?
Partisan bickering continues in house sittings making the work of committees more difficult and that is where the real work of parliament is done. Politicians and staffers are too busy gaining an edge on the ‘other guys’ at committee level to be effective; they are certainly not efficient.
Rivalry between the MPs for appointments and positions is as old as parliament. It is intensified by their mistreatment by party bosses. They did not run for office and win their seat to be marginalized when they arrive in Ottawa.
Run the numbers: There are 338 seats in the House of Commons. A political party has win at least 170 seats to form a majority government and needs 180 seats for a comfortable majority. The governing liberals have 182 seats. Only 35 are members of cabinet (including the Prime Minister). Another 37 are named parliamentary secretaries. The secretaries are subservient to the Ministers. The remaining 110 liberal MPs sit on one or more committees, but their participation is managed by party staffers and Ministers. Independent opinion and thinking are frowned on. MPs who analyze the legislation they are dealing with and propose amendments are ostracised as not being ‘team players’.
The numbers for opposition parties are smaller but follow the same pattern. It is fair to surmise that at least 200 elected MPs have little voice in the parties they represent and none in governance decisions. That is appalling and unacceptable.
After each election a Prime Minister chooses a cabinet. Pundits and the media speculate on who will represent the cabinet from each province and whether enough women will be included. Why not pick the best person for the job? The cabinet exists to serve all Canadians, not regions or provinces. Why have we been sidetracked into appeasing regions rather than seeking effective governance? The Senate is formed along regional lines. That is where and how regions are protected.
Our Parliament has deteriorated into an oligarchy. Nearly 60% of elected members have no voice in proceedings. Democracy has been stolen from us. Those who demand a change to elections to ‘fix’ parliament have no idea how the institution operates. The problem is abuse of power by unelected political party officials, not how we elect representatives. Proportional representation will only make matters far worse.
The solution is simple. Ban all political party election advertising except at electoral district level, where we vote for our representatives. Get rid of the fog, smog, smoke and mirrors. Political parties use huge sums of your donations to hire advertising agencies and pollsters, so they can appeal to feelings and fuel indignation and outrage rather than setting out their plans for governance. We are voting based on slick advertising and social media gossip rather than vital information on governance plans. Trolls on social media influence our elections because we too readily accept rumours as fact.
Political parties moan about low voter turnouts, but they are the problem. An increasing number of electors are done with electing a representative who winds up marginalized despite sound thinking ability, common sense and substantial abilities. We are stifling hundreds of years of experience and ability that can only lead us to better governance.
A few dozen political party officials who have clawed their way into position of power within political parties have gained power over governments and our elected representatives.
Shame on us for allowing it.
John Feldsted
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