In the Wake of the Election

Here in Canada, we’ve just come through an election. An election that many are calling a $600 million cabinet shuffle. Our government looks almost the same this week as last week – a minority Liberal government. People are angry about the wasted expenditure and about having an election at an inopportune time. The Prime Minister is being accused of trying to secure a majority at a time when polling looked favourable, and I’m sure that was part of his decision to call an election right now. In the end, no party got what they wanted after the election.

But I have a different take on this situation. I actually think this was not a bad time to call an election. We are in the midst of the fourth COVID wave, and hoping that this will be the end of a couple of years of pandemic measures. I think it is reasonable to ask the public how they want to move forward from here. Do we want more stimulus? Less? Do we want the focus to be on economic recovery? Social recovery? Future pandemic prevention? The environment? This is a crossroads, and if that is not a good time to seek public support and approval, I’m not sure when would be. And the message seems clear – “You are doing okay, but not great. Continue, but not unchecked. Take middle ground. Have a broad focus.”

People are unhappy with the result. Some wanted to move right, some left. Some just wanted change. The toughest criticism is that the Conservatives had slightly more support (33.7%) than the Liberals (32.6%), and yet the Liberals continue to be in charge. Initially I was feeling the injustice of that as well, but I’ve landed on a different way of looking at this. In the interest of full disclosure, I am a left leaning supporter, and am not unhappy with the status quo. But more than that, I think this is the right government for the result.

We had five legitimate parties running in most of the country, plus one who runs mostly in one particular province. The BQ, a left-of-centre Quebec nationalist party, does not intend to form a government, but instead supports the rights of Quebec within the government. For the rest of us, there were five choices: The Green Party (focused on the environment), The NDP (left-leaning), The Liberal Party (left-of-centre), The Conservative Party (right-of-centre), and a new party, the PPC (right-leaning). As the Conservatives have moved toward the centre, this new Ultraright party emerged and gained limited support. Despite the Conservatives holding more public support than any other single party, we ended up with a moderate, left-of-centre government. At first glance, this doesn’t sit well. If more people voted for a right-leaning party than any other party, how could we elect a left-leaning government? But actually, many more people voted for left-leaning parties. The right garnered just under 40% of the support, with only 5% far right. The Green Party sadly held a very small margin of public support this time (2.3%), and the rest of the support (just under 60%) was split amongst the remaining three left-of-centre parties. If we lined up all the voters from most left to most right, the median vote would be smack dab in the middle of the Liberal Party. In the end, we have a government who is left-leaning, but is not able to act without support from other parties.

Many people feel that minority governments are ineffective and expensive (because they don’t last long), but I beg to differ. I think we need a new way to look at governance. I’m actually in favour of electoral reform, but that’s a whole other blog post. In the meantime, I think we need to accept that minority governments might be our future. In my opinion, minority governments are only ineffective because all sides are waiting for a majority. If we expected minority governments to be effective, they could do so, by working together. This would ensure that more people were represented by the government. If 35-40% of the popular vote results in a majority (which it can because of the distribution of voters), this gives that small section of the population total control of the country. With a minority, the 35% needs support from another party to make things happen. That means that two parties need to agree and work together to pass legislation that reflects the interests of maybe 50 or 60% of the population.

It is also difficult to trust that governments are being elected based on their platforms. Many people vote for a party because they believe the party represents their values, without actually understanding the party platform. The complications of leading a country as large and diverse as Canada are difficult to understand for most of us. And I say that as an intelligent, educated, and concerned citizen, who has the privilege of having the time and resources to research and follow the political landscape. We’ve actually set up a society where it is difficult for the majority of people to get adequately educated on this, even if they want to. While people are in survival mode, it is difficult to find the time and inclination to care about politics in the way one would want to in order to select a government at any level.

More than that, we’ve set up a system that makes it very difficult to elect a government that represents the true values of our country. It is frustrating to hear so many people voting in fear, against something, rather than voting for what they truly believe. People vote strategically, either to punish the current government or to avoid a worse one. When there are six parties, but only two who have a realistic chance of forming government, it restricts the freedom of voters. When the two likely leaders have such opposing views, fear pushes many of us to choose the least bad credible option, which makes it more likely that only two parties will ever have a reasonable shot at forming government. And when the country is so divided, it inevitably leads to governments that flip back and forth between left and right leaning governments, which IS expensive when they spend millions of dollars undoing and redoing what the previous government had spent millions of dollars putting in place. I’m not sure what a better system is, but I hope that there will be discussion in the coming months that begins to explore other options.

In the meantime, I hope the current government can find ways to be effective. I was encouraged by what I saw as a more civil tone in this election race. I am pleased that the country as a whole seems to have a moderate approach, with most of us trusting science, agreeing that the environment is important, and believing that we need to take care of marginalized members of society. I worry about the divide between right and left, and hope that we can begin to heal the rift that keeps people feeling alienated and unheard. I dream of a future where our country is united in its desire to raise up the marginalized and disenfranchised, where we trust our leaders to govern sensibly and ethically, and where we are recognized as leaders in collaboration and innovative solutions. I dream of a society where people have the time and resources to learn about themselves, their communities, and our government. Where we can heal from individual, intergenerational, and communal traumas and begin to build a better future for all. What do you imagine for our future government?