Just like the United States of.
That is what Matt Gurney is advocating in this day's National Post.
"Having a centre-right party and a centre-left party fighting a battle for the centre would give Canadian voters an actual debate of viewpoints, much like the choice between Democrats and Republicans in the United States."
He also writes that "...as the experience of the last four years has shown, a weak opposition begets a lazy government...The Conservatives can't reach 40% in the polls, the Liberals are in chaos, the NDP know they'll never be in government ... so why not act like a buffoon while waiting for your pension to kick in? No one's going to call an election, and damned little legislation is going to get passed."
The man does make good points.
Not saying I agree with him, but.
WFDS
It seems me the problems caused by the weak and chaotic Liberals is an argument for having multiple opposition parties, so you don't have the rely on one.
ReplyDeleteThe US had (still has?) this problem with the weak and chaotic Democratic Party.
He doesn't really make good points. Polarization doesn't necessarily create "great debates" - it just makes it hyper-partisan. The GOP and the Democrats are a lot more similar than most are willing to admit, even though they'll swear on their mother's graves they aren't.
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ReplyDeleteHad, I wouldn't call the Democrats "weak," seeing as how they have membership, fundraising, legislative and media advantages across the board.
Bring back Reform to split the right! Most Canadians like minority governments, think of all the crazy right wing nonsense Harper would have passed without the fact that if he did so the rest of the parties would have gotten together and roasted him on a spit.
ReplyDeleteUmmm ... last I looked, the US doesn't have a two-party system. They have two DOMINANT parties, but there are the Greens (lead by Ralph Nader in 2000 who later ran as an independent) and Ross Perot also ran as an independent in recent history just to name a couple of examples.
ReplyDeleteI'm sick of people looking for ham-fisted 'ram-it-down-our-throats' politics and those who don't respect that there are lots of different colours out there besides Blue and kind-of Blue.
People propose two-party systems because they're lazy and would like to cover just two parties.
The key to our political future is proportional representation. Period.
If only Harper WAS right wing!
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