Racial Diversity in the 2011 Federal Election: Visible Minority Candidates and MPs

The 2011 federal election was notable in many respects. The Liberal party won the fewest seats ever in its long history. The New Democratic Party elected its largest ever contingent of MPs enabling the party to form the official opposition for the first time. Another development was the first-ever direct election of a Green Party candidate. The election also produced record levels of gender and racial diversity within Parliament. When the votes were finally tallied, 76 women had won their way into the House of Commons, an increase of seven over the number elected in 2008. This article focuses on visible minority representation which also attained a high water mark in the 2011 election.

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Judicial Recounts: An Inside View

Article 7 / 11 , Vol 36 No 3 (Autumn)

Judicial Recounts: An Inside View

Canada’s 41st general election was held on May 2, 2011. There were bitter disputes over the results in some ridings after certain candidates won their seats with razorthin margins. To determine once and for all who won and who lost, judicial recounts were ordered in four ridings: Montmagny–L’Islet–Kamouraska–Rivière-du-Loup, Etobicoke Centre, Nipissing–Timiskaming, and Winnipeg Centre. This article looks at the history of judicial recounts, the process that was used to examine the ballots in Montmagny–L’Islet–Kamouraska–Rivière-du-Loup, and Mr. Justice Gilles Blanchet’s rulings on the disputed ballots.

Judicial recounts involve having a judge review the ballots to determine the election results in a riding. The process first appeared in federal electoral legislation in 1878¹ shortly following the introduction of the secret ballot.²

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Don’t Throw the Senate out with the Bath Water

Article 8 / 11 , Vol 36 No 3 (Autumn)

Don’t Throw the Senate out with the Bath Water

The Senate’s lack of popular legitimacy gives disproportionate significance to the other problems besetting the institution. Relying on the so-called ‘democratic deficit’ argument, many ask for its abolition or want it to become elective. This article suggests that both these solutions would exacerbate the democratic deficit by extending to all our parliamentary institutions the strong hold of political parties and the Prime Minister. If the Prime Minister would agree to delegate power to recommend the appointment of senators to a House of Commons’ committee whose decisions would be taken by consensus, the risk of radical solutions would be avoided, and the Upper Chamber would gain in popular legitimacy. It could thus continue to contribute to Canadian democracy through the independence of mind and non-partisanship of parliamentarians chosen for their eminence and the sincerity of their commitment to the well-being of all Canadians.

The Senate has only one problem, but it is considerable: it has no popular legitimacy. This amplifies the severity of its other imperfections. For instance, the inappropriate use of their allowances by some senators has called into question the very existence of the Upper House, whereas when MPs commit similar offenses, their distractedness is rightly condemned but without any claim to abolishing the House of Commons.

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In Social Media Content is King

Article 1 / 12 , Vol 36 No 2 (Summer)

In Social Media Content is King

Marshall McLuhan famously observed in the 1960s that the “Medium is the Message” with different media having their own way of impacting the viewer, listener or reader. This article argues that when it comes to social media and its impact on the political process and public policy we need to pay more attention to content rather than conclude that the medium itself is transformational.

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Reaching Out to Canadian Women and Youth

Article 2 / 12 , Vol 36 No 2 (Summer)

Reaching Out to Canadian Women and Youth

The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) have come together to work for better representation of women in legislatures throughout Canada and the Commonwealth. Created in 2005, the CWP-Canadian Region is comprised of women parliamentarians of the provincial and territorial Canadian legislatures and the Federal parliament. Its aims and objectives are: To provide opportunities for strategic discussion and development for future and present parliamentarians; To increase female representation in our Parliaments; To foster closer relationships between Canadian women parliamentarians; To foster relations with other countries having close parliamentary ties with Canada; and To discuss, strategize and act on gender-related issues in Canada and internationally. The CWP pursues its objectives by means of annual Commonwealth parliamentary conferences and regional conferences, outreach programs and participation in many campaign schools across the country. This article looks at the 2013 Outreach Program held in Québec.

The importance of creating awareness and sharing information with women and girls about the role of parliamentarians, the parliamentary system and the political process is key to increasing engagement of women in politics. Outreach programs provide an invaluable opportunity to encourage involvement and to de-mystify the political world.

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Changing the Line of Succession to the Crown

Article 3 / 12 , Vol 36 No 2 (Summer)

Changing the Line of Succession to the Crown

On October 28, 2011, representatives of the Commonwealth countries for which Her Majesty the Queen is the sovereign head of state, including Canada, agreed to support changes to the rules on royal succession. Prime Minister Stephen Harper signalled Canada’s support to end the practice of placing younger brothers before their elder sisters in the line of succession. Second, he signalled support to end the prohibition against heirs marrying Roman Catholics. In December 2012, the government of the United Kingdom introduced legislation to amend the laws governing succession along these lines. The bill has been passed by the United Kingdom House of Commons and the House of Lords. This article outlines the provisions of Canadian Bill C-53 intended to indicate Canada’s agreement with the principles in the United Kingdom legislation.

The purpose of Bill C-53 is to provide the Parliament of Canada’s assent to the changes to the law governing the succession to the throne that are proposed in the United Kingdom bill. The laws governing succession are United Kingdom laws. It is wholly within the legislative authority of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to alter the body of United Kingdom laws relating to royal succession, including the English Bill of Rights of 1688 and the Act of Settlement of 1700.

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More is Needed to Change the Rules of Succession for Canada

Article 4 / 12 , Vol 36 No 2 (Summer)

More is Needed to Change the Rules of Succession for Canada

This article argues that, since the 1931 Statute of Westminster, Canada has developed its own distinct process for amending its constitution. Altering the rules of succession to the Throne, which are fundamental to our constitution, are part of that process. The Succession to the Throne Act, 2013, is an important first step, but one that does not satisfy our current constitutional requirements.

The intent behind the Succession to the Throne Act, 2013, passed by the Parliament of Canada is not at issue. Canadians generally agree with the citizens of the Queen’s other realms in supporting the changes to the laws of succession, hence the unanimous support in the House of Commons and the Senate.

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A New Participatory Policy Model: The Edmonton Citizens’ Jury on Internet Voting

Article 5 / 12 , Vol 36 No 2 (Summer)

A New Participatory Policy Model: The Edmonton Citizens’ Jury on Internet Voting

The weekend of November 23 to 25, 2012, seventeen Edmonton citizens took part in a Citizens’ Jury, which deliberated on whether to introduce Internet voting as an alternative voting method in future municipal elections. This unique public engagement process was modeled by the University of Alberta’s Centre for Public Involvement and is the first of its kind in Canada. The Jury heard testimony from expert witnesses, evaluated the evidence presented and, after extensive deliberation, delivered a verdict in favour of Internet voting. This article summarizes the Jury process, analyzes its outcomes, and discusses lessons learned from this approach to participatory policy development and decision-making.

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Assessing the Potential of New Social Media

Article 6 / 12 , Vol 36 No 2 (Summer)

Assessing the Potential of New Social Media

The Internet and social media are almost universally assumed to be essential to election campaigns and the work of parliamentarians, as well as being centrally important to how individual Canadians engage with politics. Indeed, it is regularly assumed that new information and communications technologies have transformed politics in ways that enhance the quality of democracy by connecting and engaging citizens with political processes that are more transparent and interactive than in the past. This article offers a partial assessment of the impact of the Internet, social networking and related information and communications technologies on politics, campaigning and parliamentarians. The perspective offered is rooted in a desire to avoid unfounded enthusiasm and unsubstantiated assumptions about the extent to which potentially interactive information and communications technologies have actually transformed politics.

Thirty years ago before widespread access to high speed Internet, user-friendly e-mail programs, political weblogs, and social networking sites, the political theorist Benjamin Barber speculated that new information technologies had the potential to strengthen democracy by increasing public access to information that would enhance civic awareness and facilitating participatory dialogue and deliberation across great distances.1 During the 1990s, as popular access to new information and communications technologies and the Internet became increasingly common, optimistic democrats believed we were on the cusp of a new era social and political democratization. Cyber-utopians believed computer-based information sharing and interaction would transform democratic politics.

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Canadian Influences on the British Speakership

Article 7 / 12 , Vol 36 No 2 (Summer)

Canadian Influences on the British Speakership

The office of Speaker of the United Kingdom House of Commons can trace its origins to 1258 when Peter de Montfort presided over ‘The Mad Parliament’ of that year. In 1376, Peter de la Mare was elected as Parliament’s first official spokesman but it was the following year, in 1377, that Sir Thomas Hungerford was the first person to be given the title of Speaker. It is during much more recent history, the period since 1945, however, that this ancient office has undergone its greatest evolution. This article will chart that post-war development and look at how examples from the Canadian Speakership have played a part in shaping its counterpart at Westminster.

Despite the fact that the Canadian Speakership has yet to achieve the same level of independence and impartiality as the much older and more established British one, in many ways it has been one step ahead of its counterpart at Westminster. One province, British Columbia, had the first woman to hold the office of Speaker anywhere in the Commonwealth. The Canadian House had a Speaker from the Opposition benches nearly seventy years before this took place in the United Kingdom and its method of electing the Chair would be copied when the previous system used at Westminster could not cope with more than two candidates for the post.

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