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.

Candiate, educate thyself

I have an op-ed in the July 31st print edition of the Ottawa Citizen, which asks that candidates running for the 2015 federal election start educating themselves as to the way that Parliament works, and what the roles of an MP really are. It was a good way to tie into a number of other pieces I've been writing lately, along with my recent reading of Tragedy in the Commons, and I hope that it provides some inspiration both to candidates, as well as voters looking to ask them questions in debates as the election approaches.

Co-opting backbenchers

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the increasing phenomenon of backbench MPs making spending or policy announcements "on behalf of" ministers of the Crown, and how that subverts them from their proper role in our parliamentary system, and co-opts them from being able to do their proper oversight in a rather deliberate way. It's not just bringing home the bacon if it's making your job irrelevant.

Why Parties Matter

My column this week on Loonie Politics takes issue with recent columns by others calling for the abolition of political parties, because I argue that they are looking at the wrong things, ignoring the things they should be paying attention to, and in the end, advocating exactly the wrong solution to the  problems that exist. It was also another excuse to turn to one of my favourite topics, being civic literacy, and to explaining the parts of our system that most people don't realise exist for a reason.

Declined ballots are nonsense

My column this week on Loonie Politics (a couple of days late owing to the holiday) looks at the attention paid recently to the "declined ballot" option available in Ontario and the attempt to get that made a federal option, and why it's not only a bad idea, but a fundamental betrayal of our very system of government.

Democracy, not technocracy

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the expectations around the expert panel on the options analysis for the fighter jet replacements, along with the various calls for even more Auditor General investigations and the call for other officers of parliament and civil servants to take more of the powers away from the Prime Minister and cabinet, and notes the dangers of ceding power to unaccountable technocrats, which is antithetical to our system of ministerial responsibility and Responsible Government.