Political confusion reigns o’er us

[Praxius]

Political system mystifies many, survey finds
Political confusion reigns o’er us - Nova Scotia News - TheChronicleHerald.ca

TORONTO — D’oh Canada! We hardly know you.

The prime minister is not our head of state. We are not a representative republic. We do not elect our prime minister directly.

A new survey for the Dominion Institute taken in the aftermath of this month’s political crisis in which the word "prorogue" was dusted off suggests a woeful ignorance when it comes to our system of government.

For example, results of the Ipsos Reid survey show 75 per cent of Canadians asked believe the prime minister, or the Governor General, is head of state. Bzzzz — wrong.

It’s actually the Queen.

Only 24 per cent managed to answer correctly, according to the poll provided exclusively to The Canadian Press.

Marc Chalifoux, president of the Dominion Institute, said he decided to commission the survey in light of the furor caused when a coalition of opposition parties threatened to topple Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minority Conservative government.

Harper’s defensive strategy was to ask Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean to prorogue, or shut down, Parliament until late in January to avoid what likely would have been a vote of non-confidence.

With such unfamiliar words such as "treason" and "coup d’etat" entering the Canadian political lexicon, Chalifoux said he wanted to gauge the understanding people had of what had transpired.

"Canadians certainly were interested by what was going on in Ottawa, but lacked in many cases the basic knowledge to form informed opinions," Chalifoux said.

"We found a lot of ignorance."

Funny, so did I.

The institute drew up four basic questions:

•Who is the head of state?

•How can Canada’s system of government best be described?

•Do Canadians elect the prime minister directly?

•Can the governor general can nix a prime minister’s request for a new election?

"These questions we’re asking aren’t just trivia," Chalifoux said.

"These are part of the basic tool kit of knowledge that citizens need to function in a democracy."

Given a choice how best to describe the system of government, 25 per cent decided on a "co-operative assembly" while 17 per cent opted for a "representative republic."

Canada is neither.

Only 59 per cent correctly picked constitutional monarchy.

In a similar vein, 51 per cent wrongly agreed that Canadians elect the prime minister directly.

In fact, Canadians elect local members of Parliament and the leader of the party with the most members by tradition becomes prime minister at the request of the governor general.

"Our school system needs to be doing a better job of training young people to be citizens," Chalifoux said.

One question that elicited close to unanimous agreement was about the Governor General’s power to refuse to call an election at the request of a prime minister who no longer enjoys majority support in the House of Commons.

A full 90 per cent responded — correctly — that the Governor General does have the power, which Jean may yet be called on to wield if the opposition coalition does defeat the government with a vote in the Commons.

Yeah not all that suprising, and what else isn't suprising is how well this level of ignorance can work for one paticular political party, esspecially when they spout of ignorant remarks like the Coalition being undemocratic and a power grab..... basically villianizing the opposition against the ignorant masses who perhaps think our democracy is like the US's.

Frigged if I know, but people need to get some education on the matter.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

In a similar vein, 51 per cent wrongly agreed that Canadians elect the prime minister directly.

In fact, Canadians elect local members of Parliament and the leader of the party with the most members by tradition becomes prime minister at the request of the governor general.

Praxius, this is hardly surprising. Do you remember how many conservatives even in this forum kept insisting that Canada had given a mandate to Fidel to be the Prime Minister? I had to repeatedly explain here that in Canada, we do NOT elect a Prime Minister; we elect only an MP, nothing more. The MPs then get together and then elect the Prime Minister.

So the conclusion of this study does not surprise me, there is plenty of ignorance of our political system. Also, another reason people may think that Canadians gave Fidel the mandate to be the PM could be that in USA, people did give Obama the mandate to be the President. So I assume many people confuse the two systems.

Since people gave Obama the mandate to be the President, it follows that they also gave Fidel the mandate to be the PM. The big difference is of course, that while Obama was on the ballet by his name all over USA, Fidel was not on the ballot anywhere in the Canada, except for one riding in Alberta.

As to what type of system we have, I don’t think it is wrong to say that we have representative democracy; I think that is an accurate description. However, if constitutional monarchy was given as an alternative, then that definitely is the right answer.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

I had to repeatedly explain here that in Canada, we do NOT elect a Prime Minister; we elect only an MP, nothing more. The MPs then get together and then elect the Prime Minister.

Not quite. We elect a House of Commons, MP by MP as you said, but the Governor-General chooses the Prime Minister, normally by asking the leader of the group with the most seats in the House to form a government, and under other circumstances by asking anyone she (or he, in other times) believes can get the support (="confidence")of the House as Lord Byng did, I think correctly, in 1926. If there's no such person, we have another election and try it again.

I think the G-G was technically wrong to grant Harper's request for prorogation, it was perfectly clear he'd lost the confidence of the House and was thus not entitled to continue in office, she should have made him go back and face the situation he created. But in practical terms, I'm inclined to think it was the best thing to do. The revulsion across Canada against a coalition deal with separatists was pretty strong. I don't believe that coalition would have had any credibility as a government with most voters, and ultimately any government's legitimacy depends on the consent of the governed, at least in our fortunate little country, so a cooling off period seemed the best of a seriously unpleasant list of options.

But what really bugs me most about this is the demagoguery Harper displayed, deliberately spreading confusion and misinformation about the nature of responsible government and our parliamentary democracy. He was lying and he *knew* he was lying, he was prepared to do exactly the same coalition thing during Paul Martin's minority government and clearly understood the principles. I'm not conservative, or Conservative, but I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, if only because I was so heartily sick of Liberal corruption and beliefs of entitlement. No more; I have no confidence in him anymore either. I think he's a mean little man with mean little motives, not to be trusted with a majority.

 

[darkbeaver]

When leaders betray the trust of the electorate as both the Liberals and now the Conservatives have done our thoughts quite naturally turn to revolution and destruction of the extant sociopolitical paradigm I think. So I would council the youth of this once great nation to hurl shoes at their local politicians whereever and whenever the oportunity arises. Remember they are lying dung balls not to be confused with real humans. You might join them Dex or you could give your heart to the NDP this time. Sadly it would be misplaced love just like the other affairs, I fear. The rot and corruption of the western world is unparrelled anywhere in history.

 

[Praxius]

Praxius, this is hardly surprising. Do you remember how many conservatives even in this forum kept insisting that Canada had given a mandate to Fidel to be the Prime Minister?

Oh I know, this is why I posted this thread in the first place, so people can get a clue