middleofnowhere

I’ve frequently heard two different expressions used to describe countries that are composed of many different nations, cultures and so on - “melting pot” or “mosaic”. The implications of being a melting pot, are that once you become a citizen of that country, you will eventually be assimilated into their language, culture and other aspects of what makes them, well, them. A mosaic is different in that you are not only allowed, but expected to maintain your individual cultural identity and add it to what already exists - thereby enriching the overall product. I don’t have particularly strong objections to either approach, although I do think that “mosaic” sounds a lot prettier.

Within Canada, it seems that Ottawa is starting to represent the mosaic that most Canadians see our country as, although it is more political differences than cultural ones that are creating our patchwork collection of MP’s. Each party seems to be becoming more and more regionalized and many people feel that the distribution between overall popular support and the seat count is skewed, to say the least.

Many people have suggested that we need to move to some form of proportional government, most vocally, the Green Party who despite receiving over 6 percent of the vote nationally still have zero representatives in parliament. The other side of the coin is seen when despite receiving only 10 percent of the national vote, the Bloc Quebecois have forty-nine seats - good enough for third place nationally.

Are more parties like the Bloc going to rise to prominence on the national scene? It’s not likely, as many smaller provinces simply don’t have the seat count for there to be much of a point. A Bloc type party in Newfoundland would send 7 reps with a clean sweep. PEI? 4 reps. Not exactly earth-shattering.

So is a system where popular vote was used to delegate seat count the answer? Given the current state of Canadian politics, it would likely put an end to the thoughts of a majority governments for the foreseeable future. It may also see the concept of coalition governments become a reality in Canada. There are certainly pros and cons to each of these situations.

The reality is that seeing proportional representation is about as likely as seeing bigfoot. As long as the two major players, the Liberals and Conservatives have realistic chances of forming majority governments, they have little to no reason to support such a change as they have nothing to gain.

By nature, the party system is adversarial and as such, working together is a foreign concept between parties. Maybe a few more rounds of minority government will help them to remember some basic lessons - play nice, cooperate and always remember to take turns.