Party Lines

Party discipline is strictly enforced in Canada, as it is in most other Westminster-style parliaments. It isn’t enforced legally… in fact, for a long time parties were irrelevant as far as the law was concerned, and I think the first mention of them was concerning the appointment of a Prime Minister from the largest party.

This is the natural consequence of having the executive branch being dependent on the support of the legislative branch. Once the very existence of a government is in question, keeping those legislators in line becomes a much higher priority. Those ministers and backbenchers who don’t stick with the party line are removed from the party, and sit as independents. They are still in Parliament… but they lose a lot of the influence, lose the chance to sit on committees, and lose all the support they need to get reelected.

What this creates is a situation where most of the time you don’t really need to know anything about the local candidate. Not even their name, sometimes. You can safely vote just based on the colour of their tie.

There are two exceptions to this. First, the elected member can change parties. If ejected from a party they can join another, or if they are dissatisfied they can go looking for another. There are no legal barriers to this… remember, the party is just a voluntary association on their part, even though it’s usually the most important consideration for the electorate.

The second situation is when a member chooses to vote against their party. Such a situation has just arisen, in the Senate, but the circumstances prove just how effective party discipline really is in this country.

Liberal senator Mobina Jaffer has come out against Bill C-51, the Conservative’s anti-terrorism bill. The Liberal party as a whole supports the bill. Perhaps when they found out they weren’t the opposition anymore, they decided to be the support? Whatever their reasoning, they’re for C-51.

Mobina Jaffer can’t face retaliation for this, because as it happens all the Liberal senators were kicked out of the party last year. Not based on their votes, but rather because the Liberal party is against the appointed Senate and wants elected senators instead.

Interestingly, the Conservatives and NDP also support an elected Senate. Or at least, they did. The Conservatives changed their position to supporting an appointed Senate just as soon as they formed the government and were faced with the chance to make the appointments.

The NDP hasn’t had that chance, so I won’t speculate on whether they would drop their principles as well. But kudos to the Liberals on making the honourable choice to boot out their senators… after enough Conservative senators had been appointed to cost them their majority anyway.

Anyway, enough cynical jabs. Mobina Jaffer is against C-51. Good for her. It doesn’t matter that much, though I will be really impressed if 52 or so Conservative senators join her. I’m not holding my breath.

And as for elected members crossing the floor… well, I think it ought to automatically trigger a byelection. Let them find out if their constituents support the choice. It requires making the party system official… but let’s get real here. The parties have been in charge for longer than Canada has existed. Making it official won’t change that.