Term limits and the outsider fetish

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the proposal that Jim Prentice made in the Alberta PC leadership race about term limits for leaders and MLAs. I not only discuss why it's a fraught proposition in a Westminster democracy like ours, but why it plays into some of the worst thinking about our system, where the fear of "career politicians" ends up making things worse and not better for accountability.

One weird and ignorant trick to restore democracy

My column this week on Loonie Politics is a bit of an object lesson for amateur pundits who believe that they have the answers to a "quick fix" for our democratic woes in this country. As I demonstrate, using one recent example, these kinds of ideas are generally flawed from the outset, ignorant of history, the reality of our system, and in taking the wrong lessons from tales of democratic woe, and as such, should be taken as seriously as spammy Internet advertising.