Mandates and the names on the ballot

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the electoral canard of conferring mandates upon political leaders at the ballot box and about voting for leaders directly – a timely consideration given some of the rhetoric around the recently called Ontario election. It's another column that serves as a bit of a reminder about our system of Responsible Government, and what it actually means when we mark a ballot, no matter what our calculation is at the time when we do so.

Beware making Parliament more "efficient" for MPs

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at some recent talk about how to make Parliament more accessible for new parents – talk which inevitably leads to people talking about how to make Parliament more "efficient" with things like electronic voting. While it all sounds good, I point out some of the ways in which previous changes to make things more "family friendly" had some pretty major unintended consequences, which is why we want to think twice before we start changing things.

A victory for the reality of the constitution

I have a special column on Loonie Politics after the Supreme Court's decision on the Senate Reference, where I wanted to go a little beyond the fact that it really wasn't a surprise outcome, but to comment on the populist calls for a referendum and how the referendum proposals to date have been rather half-baked and maybe this reference will make the would-be reformers get serious.

A bastion of desk-thumping — Question Period in Alberta

As a special vacation column for Loonie Politics, I took in Question Period in the Alberta Legislature and compared it to how things proceed in Ottawa. It was an interesting exercise to engage in, and a lot of fun to really think about how the dynamics are different, and how the lack of French exposes some of the ways in which Ottawa pays to the cameras a lot more.

We don’t need MPs in short pants

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at a rather bewildering column by Lawrence Martin in which he suggested that the PMO be stuffed full of backbench MPs, for some inexplicable reason. Because such a suggestion betrays a complete lack of civic literacy, I took the opportunity to not only correct Martin, but to provide a refresher on the real job of a backbench MP.

How are those open nominations going anyway?

My column this week on Loonie Politics revisits the issue of open nominations, and of four recent nominations that have taken place or are ongoing, three of them are showing problems that not a lot of people are talking about. That the Anders nomination has taken most attention is a good start, but there are issues in some of these other nominations that should be better explored and contextualized.

The 180: Should more Canadians join political parties?

I was on CBC Radio One's "The 180" today, where I spoke with host Jim Brown about the importance of open nominations. They were interested in speaking to me thanks to a column I wrote in January on the subject, and we had a great conversation about the topic.