Three Lessons the U.K. Could Teach Canada

A Canadian coalition? Recent developments across the pond could inform Canada's approach to governance.

After a five-day marathon consisting of meetings, negotiations, and a resignation, the United Kingdom will be governed by a coalition for the first time since the Second World War. While the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives share little in the way of policy, after 13 years it was time for the Labour Party to step aside. What are we to make of these developments in Canada? Here are three lessons that might usefully be applied in our current fractured political climate.

1. Third parties matter. While the New Democratic Party polls at or under 20 per cent nationally, they have members from coast to coast and will become increasingly relevant as potential king-makers in Canadian electoral politics for years to come. The NDP might take a serious look at what the Lib Dems managed in the U.K. While they are socially quite liberal, certainly left of New Labour, they have found a way to run on some centrist economic policies. In general, their platform appears to focus on local control and to challenge concentrated power, wherever it resides, be it in government, unions, or corporations. That is a message that seems mighty appealing in an age of scandalous governments, corrupt corporate practices, and increasingly irrelevant unions. By fighting to ensure that electoral reform will be central to the next Parliament, they offer an important model of how influence can be used to counter increasingly undemocratic parliaments and unrepresentative politics.

2. Governing is not an entitlement. Far too many Liberals appear to think that majority governments in Canada will soon return. They will not. It’s time to get over it. The assumption that it will soon be the Liberals’ turn to lead again is based on an out of date reading of political history. It seems increasingly unfathomable that any one party can govern a large and varied country such as Canada. In an era of regionalized and increasingly identity-based politics, new forms of cooperation are required. Federal parties need to find ways to cooperate or make way for those who can.

3. Rethink coalitions. If third parties matter and new forms of cooperation are needed to govern, the obvious conclusion is for Canadians to rethink coalitions. Of course, Harper has poisoned this notion with his shameless misrepresentation of parliamentary democracy, demonization of the Bloc, and constitutional subversion since 2008. While his actions may have delayed the eventual reality of coalitions in Canada, they will not work again. We would do well to remember that all governments, all parties, and all politics are based on coalitions – formal or informal, within or between parties. Governing is about getting enough people in enough geographic regions to agree on a governance program. Its coalitions or Conservatives in Canada. It’s time to face that reality as our neighbors to the east have just done.

Canadians should think about what has happened in the U.K. and ask themselves if they are ready for a change. Is it time for an open, transparent, evidence-based, and electorally reformed approach to governance in Canada?