[LINK] "Ending Canada's 'benign dictatorship'"

[rfmcdonald]

Thanks go out to Facebook's Michael for pointing me to CBC report Terry Milewski's analysis of a 1997 article, co-authored by current Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper and political scientist Tom Flanagan (the same one who jokingly called for the assassination of Julian Assange), arguing that coalition governments are the way to go. They even approve of alliances with Québec nationalists (Flanagan later changed his mind).

Here's a little test: what would the Conservatives do if they found a clip of Michael Ignatieff calling Canada a "benign dictatorship?"

Right: they'd put it in an attack ad.

Another test: what would the Liberals do if they caught Stephen Harper saying that?

Right: nothing. At least, that's what they've done with it so far.

So, let's consider that obscure but intriguing article, written in 1997 by two brainy conservatives, Tom Flanagan and Stephen Harper. Yes, it calls Canada "a benign dictatorship."

Oh, and it's a passionate defence of coalition governments.

That's right: the whole article is a detailed, persuasive and deeply-researched plea for governments to be forced to compromise with opposition coalitions. That's the only way, said Harper and Flanagan, to curb the tendency to a "one-party state" induced by Canada's "winner take all" system.

[. . .]

Harper and Flanagan wanted a "strategic alliance" of opposing parties to dislodge the Liberals, aided by reforms of the electoral system to ensure that those parties get more seats in Parliament.

For examples of superior democratic systems, they point to the Clinton administration's forced cohabitation with a Republican Congress after 1996, and to numerous European examples. Only Britain, they say, gives all power to the winner. (And even that example no longer holds. It's another coalition country now.)

[. . .]

Asked about his past enthusiasm for coalitions, Harper sidestepped this week by saying he was just talking about 'uniting the right" — namely, his plan to merge the Reform and Progressive Conservative parties.

But that's not what he said at the time. In his article with Flanagan, he said the opposite:

"A merger between Reform and the PCs, though still discussed, seems to us out of the question. Too many careers would be at stake. Political parties almost never merge in the true sense of the term, and the gap between today's opposition factions is simply too great."