CanadaPolitics

VP candidate and MP Jamil Jivani bonded over being outsiders at a top U.S. law school

Obligatory mention of proportional representation, which is the most important improvement that we could make to our democracy, but this article describes another issue - that the Prime Minister most likely has too much power in this country.

Canadian prime ministerial powers fall into two main categories. The first is the ability of the prime minister, backed by their staff in the Prime Minister’s Office—the PMO—and the Privy Council Office—the PCO—to direct and control what happens in government and in Parliament. The second is the astonishing unchecked power of patronage Canadians give their prime minister to appoint all the leading figures in the country’s public life, judiciary, and administration.

Backbenchers in the House of Commons no longer see themselves primarily as representatives of the people who elected them and therefore owing prime loyalty to the interests of their constituents. Canadian MPs see loyalty to their party and its leader as their duty beyond any other. A 2020 study by the Samara Centre for Democracy found that Canadian MPs vote as they are instructed by their party whips 99.6 percent of the time.

I have become convinced that the key to unlocking the barriers to repairing our democracy is to dismantle this electoral system that revolves around the celebrity and curb appeal of a handful of individuals. If Ottawa worked as it should—if it worked as a representative system based on discussion and resolution of communal issues—then the other problems with the Canadian polity and federation can be overcome. In a country of immense diversity, no other democratic model will work. Fundamentally, the overriding problem for Canadian democracy is the unaccountable power that has gathered into the hands of the prime minister. Until that problem is addressed and redressed, until a sustainable working relationship between the prime minister and Parliament is restored, no tinkering with the other levels of our institutions will work.

Amendments to the Competition Act that became law last month under Bill C-59 require companies to be able to prove environmental claims made to promote a product or business interest.

Schulz said the changes caused "a lot of concern for industry."

Source

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe both often draw links between their NDP opponents provincially, and Trudeau’s decisions in Ottawa, many of which have been backed by Singh and the federal NDP. Smith and Moe contend Trudeau is overstepping into provincial jurisdiction including in health care, energy and the environment.

“Naheed Nenshi, Trudeau’s choice for Alberta.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/23546146

His common sense vision for public safety involves a big increase in addiction treatment programs, most of them private and some of them involuntary, meaning during incarceration. He wants indefinite apprehension of permanently brain-damaged habitual offenders now wandering the streets, on mental health grounds. That could involve invoking the notwithstanding clause in the charter of rights to bypass constitutional concerns if need be, he said.

Hospitals now cut services to meet their budget because they look at patients as a cost, he said. “We actually need to reverse that, we need to look at patients as revenue generators.”

Good explanation of why Canada is supporting Genocide in Gaza.

I watch a lot of late night shows and British current events shows (have I got news for you, the bugle podcast). Really wish there was something equivalent for Canada. I know there was “this hour has 22 minutes” and Rick Mercer but I don’t think they’re around any more.

Any other Canadian comedic current events options?

Kenney, at a 2018 gathering of his United Conservative Party, pledged a "fully staffed rapid-response war room in government to quickly and effectively rebut every lie told by the green left about our world-class energy industry."

That line worked well in a room full of pro-oil partisans who felt their province's main industry under siege. And it surely felt familiar to Kenney himself, who'd spend so many federal elections in the Conservative Party war room, pumping out attack after counter-attack against the Liberals, NDP or any other would-be threat to his own faction.

It tried to take down Big Green. It instead picked fights with Bigfoot Family.

Jagmeet Singh said Thursday he's "more convinced than ever" that some parliamentarians are "willing participants" in foreign states' efforts to interfere in Canadian politics after reading an unredacted version of a bombshell report

May said she was 'relieved' reading the report

Yves-François Blanchet said Tuesday he's inquired about getting security clearance

That would make Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre the only major party leader to refuse to obtain the necessary security clearance to read the report.

'We're stepping up for Canadians. They're stepping up for the rich,' Trudeau says of Conservatives

But holding the election on that date would also mean that up to 80 MPs — those who were first elected in the 2019 general election — would have served the six years required to qualify for a parliamentary pension, even if they don't run and win their seats in the next campaign.

[...]

"Canadians don't want to see members of Parliament putting forward legislation that personally benefits their own pensions," said MP Lisa Marie Barron, the NDP critic for democratic institutions.

Barron said when the bill reaches the committee, her party will introduce an amendment to strike the date change from the bill and return voting day to Oct. 20 — meaning MPs first elected in the 2019 general election would have to be re-elected in 2025 in order to qualify for Parliament's relatively generous retirement benefits.

Foreign affairs usually don’t play a role when it comes to voting in Canadian federal elections. But the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is having an effect on religious voters in this country. That’s the finding of a new poll by the Angus Reid Institute that shows low support for the federal Liberal party among all religious groups, including two groups they have traditionally counted on — Muslims and Jews.

The poll, which was released in mid-May, shows

• 41 per cent of Muslims support the NDP, 31 per cent support the Liberals and 15 per cent support the Conservatives. By contrast, in a 2016 Environics Institute poll, 65 per cent of Muslims reported voting for the Liberals in the 2015 election, 10 per cent voted for the NDP and just two per cent supported the Conservatives.
• Jewish support for Liberals is also low, with 42 per cent supporting the Conservatives compared to 33 per cent for the Liberals. Liberals have traditionally performed well in federal ridings with significant Jewish populations, the Angus Reid article notes.
• forty-five per cent of Roman Catholics prefer the Conservatives, 24 per cent the Liberals and 16 per cent are for the NDP.
• Among mainline Protestants, 58 per cent are for the Conservatives, 25 per cent for the Liberals and 11 per cent are NDP.
• Seventy-nine per cent of evangelicals would vote Conservative, five per cent for the Liberals and 14 per cent NDP. -Fifty-three per cent of Hindus would vote Conservative, 22 per cent support the Liberals and 18 per cent the NDP.
• For Sikhs, 54 per cent are Conservative, 21 per cent Liberal and 20 per cent NDP.

This legislative triad would grant the government sweeping new powers to censor and censure, undermining privacy rights.