Our Democratic Right to Hold Elections for No Reason

Feeling bored this spring? Let's go to the polls!

In the Globe and Mail, Margaret Wente questions the need for an election this spring. “All around the world, people are protesting, even dying, for the right to hold elections,” she writes. “In Canada, all we do is have elections. We must be the only country in the world that has way more elections than people want.” But would our seventh election in 11 years really be an abuse of our democracy, as Wente suggests? When we assert the right to free speech, do we demand that people say only intelligent things? Calling unwanted elections at the drop of a hat is our politicians’ democratic right, confound it, and we’ll be damned if anyone takes it away from them.

The National Post editorialists say that an election is needed, “not because Canada is in any sort of crisis,” but because Parliament “is increasingly being consumed by the overwrought dramas of minority-governance gamesmanship.” For months, the opposition has been hammering the government on accountability issues ranging from the specious to the substantiated, and in response the Conservatives have become more secretive than ever. While critics say an election will simply result in another Conservative minority, at least Stephen Harper will get a fresh mandate, and the Post even expresses optimism that a Liberal defeat would lead to Michael Ignatieff’s resignation and the rejuvenation of the party. “We are not partisan Liberal supporters, but we realize that the health of our democracy rests on having at least two viable governing parties.”

Before we hurtle headlong into the campaign abyss, the Toronto Star’s Chantal Hébert takes a moment to look back on the rare moments when members of the 40th Parliament actually co-operated. These included the Liberals supporting the government’s recession budget and backing an extended stay in Afghanistan, and last week’s all-party endorsement of Canada’s participation in Libyan airstrikes. “The 40th Parliament featured some desperately trite and partisan debates,” Hébert writes. “But on the larger issues, it more often than not managed to arrive at some form of bipartisan consensus.” Soak up that co-operative spirit, folks. It’s the last taste of it we’ll get for awhile.