Canada has had many minority governments in the last hundred or so years. As, often a minority of votes wil reap a majority government, to have a minority government means a party took less than half the votes. Thus the frequency of minority governments means that we have been living under minority rule.
After an election, the party with the most seats forms government.
It will only be sustained in power as long as it has the support of a majority (more than half) of the Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House.
Support for a government is not a mathematical thing pre-programmed through seat counts. It is having bums in seats when the vote is held. Many are the stories of weak and ailing MPs dragging themselves into the House to cast a critical vote. But that is basis of British government - the human element. It is also possible for an MP despite party discipline not to show up for a vote. The party may make him or her pay for it later but a person can do anything he or she wants as long as he or she is prepared to take the consequences. We don't elect parties in our elections - we elect people. People who can be swayed by logic or evidence to make a decision for themselves.
The support of the Senate is required to pass laws in Canada but it has no effect on the survival of an elected government.
If no party has a majority of the MPs in the House of Commons, some party, usually the party with the most seats, summons the support of another party to keep it in power. Support may be given on a case-by-case basis, where the other party's MPs support the government on a law if they like the law, or it may be formulated through a long-lasting arrangement of mutual benefit.
Or the intra-party co-operation may be more formal with a coalition being formed, where each co-operating party has some of the cabinet positions and joint decision-making takes place involving both parties.
Federally, Canada has only had one coalition government - this occurred during WWI when the Conservative MPs and some Liberal MPs joined together to run the government so as to set aside major party-to-party conflict during the war.
Either way, the government has to be careful to only propose laws that have general support.
Federal minority governments thus have survived for as long as each did, through the informal support of another party. This uncertainty forced the party in power - Liberal or Conservative - to bend to the will of its supporters outside the party. However, neither party will totally give up its own proposals for the sake of the government's survival so the relationship is like a balancing act.
A recent case of this at the provincial level was the NDP government in BC. The Greens said a condition of their support was reform of the electoral system (to bring in a form of proportional representation). The NDP was unwilling but did hold a plebiscite on the issue. The Greens accepted this compromise.
Canada's federal Pension Plan got its start due to leverage wielded by Labour MPs during minority governments of 1925 and 1926.
However, a small party that gives its support to another party then has a bit of a struggle competing against its former buddy in the next election. This risk was detected by M.J. Coldwell in 1940 as described in my next blog.)
Many of Canada's federal minority governments were in power only a year or so before losing the confidence of the House of Commons (being voted down by a majority of the MPs) and losing power. One government lasted only seven months - that of Conservative Joe Clark whose privatization of Petro-Canada, a profitable publicly-owned business enterprise, was not supported by the NDP or Liberals.
Many minority governments survived three or four years.
When a minority government falls, the governor-general has the power to give another party a chance to form government if it can get the support of a majority of the MPs in the House.
This transfer of power without election has occurred only twice in Canadian history - in 1873 and in 1926.
The other times when the government falls, an election is held, to give voters a chance to compose a new House (although voters vote only for local representatives so have no definite effect on the Canada-wide result).
A minority government's need for support from other parties means the Liberal and Conservative stranglehold on political power in Canada opens a bit during these times. Canada's Pension Plan got its start through just that kind of situation.
Minority governments were elected in 1925, 1957, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1972 and 1979 and many times more recently. Thus although FPTP is said to provide stable government, it actually does not, under Canada's splintered party structure.
From 2004 to 2011, Canada had minority governments.
These back-to-back minority governments seem to be harbingers of the future.
Two to four major parties have been added to the old-line Liberals and Conservatives, and the vote is shattered. In a district election, with the vote shattered and shared out among so many large parties and among independent candidates, a candidate may win with less than 30 percent of the vote in the district.
Small local differences thus may allow a candidate of a small party to win a seat.
The Green candidate elected in the 2018 Ontario election was not a product of this. He actually had the majority of votes in his district. His election could be held up as a spectacular accomplishment of the local representation. This opportunity for local success is one of the advantages of First past the Post. The strength of his local support overcame the obstacles set up against a small party under FPTP normally.
The increasing range of options open for voters means that Canadian politics has moved past the efficiencies of the First past the Post (FPTP) system, a system designed in the 1800s when there were only two main parties.
It is time to move to a proportional representation system that ensures fair representation to all parties large and small.
I recommend the Single Transferable Vote system that worked for 30 years in Alberta cities. (see my other blogs on this)
The First Past The Post system under which our electoral system functions exaggerates regional differences. People saw the full sweep that Conservative candidates repeatedly achieve in Alberta and characterize Albertans as Conservative, while as much as a third of Albertans vote for parties other than Conservatives. The same holds true for Quebec where Liberals or Quebec federal parties (such as the Bloc Quebecois) have traditionally been more strongly represented than their vote count demonstrated.
These regional differences partially created by FPTP, means the House of Commons is split among many parties. This means that increasingly no party will take a majority of seats in the House.
Minority governments are uncertain and unstable. A system that allows a majority of voters choose a majority government is preferable, being more democratic, than after-election bargaining and deal-making among parties.
Double Democracy
Guaranteed majority government can be produced under a system where the voter places two votes, one for the local representative and one for the government he/she wants to see in power. If the votes for government were transferable as in Single Transferable Voting, a consensus could be formed to determine the majority's choice. If the chosen party does not win a majority of seats in the election, additional seats should be given to it so that it does have the majority-power position a majority of voters desire. This would be more transparent and democratic than today's after-election negotiation behind closed doors among party leaders.
Minority governments in Canada's history:
Alexander Mackenzie 1873–1874, Liberal
William Lyon Mackenzie King minority government for part of the 1921–25 term, Liberal
William Lyon Mackenzie King 1925–26, Liberal
Arthur Meighen 1926, Conservative
John Diefenbaker 1957–1958, 1962–1963, Progressive Conservative
Lester Pearson 1963–1965, Liberal
Lester Pearson 1965–1968, Liberal
Pierre Trudeau 1972–1974, Liberal
Joe Clark 1979–1980, Progressive Conservative
Paul Martin 2004–2006, Liberal
Stephen Harper 2006–2008 Conservative
Stephen Harper 2008–2011, Conservative
Justin Trudeau 2019-2023 Liberal
Four of the last six elections produced minority governments.
These are produced by no party taking a majority of the seats and of course only a minority of the votes. Thus recently, more often than not, we have been experiencing minority rule.
We need a system that ensures that the party in power has the proven support of a majority of the voters. A system of Double Democracy would ensure that at the overall level. A system of multiple-member districts electing MPs through Single Transferable Voting would achieve it at the district level.
Thanks for reading.
====================================
Comments