That’s what Clark told voters during the province’s recent election campaign, citing the example of a Liberal MLA who “stood up and said he didn’t support” an amendment to a “forestry bill.”
It’s the kind of assurance Canadian politicians often give when they are accused of being “trained seals” or “potted plants who park their brains at the door” and only vote the party line.
But, in the real world, the kind of public opposition that Clark cited isn’t frequent in B.C., or in most other legislatures in this country.
While producing Whipped – a documentary about party discipline that will premiere in Ottawa on June 20, followed by screenings in Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo and Thunder Bay – I found that just 0.25 per cent of the recorded votes cast in B.C.’s legislature between May 2001 and April 2012 broke party ranks.
That’s different from what happens in the United Kingdom, where the percentage of rebellious votes in the House of Commons was seven times greater during the same period.
But it’s similar to what happens in Canada’s Commons, where just 0.7 per cent of votes broke party ranks between October 2004 and May 2013, according to data compiled by programmer Cory Horner, founder of the defunct website How’d They Vote.
So it’s the exception rather than the rule when a federal or provincial politician votes against the party line – as MLA John Rustad did when he opposed part of a bill expanding B.C.’s environmentally protected areas (not an amendment to a forestry bill, as the premier appears to have believed).
In fact, in the last session of B.C.’s legislature, Rustad was the only representative to break ranks on a vote.
Still, as one of former MLA told me, it’s reasonable to assume “there’s got to be times, random chance if nothing else, that some of us disagree with what we’re voting on.”
But the fear of talking about what happens in caucus and cabinet – the private spaces where MLAs, MPPs and MPs are allowed to voice dissenting opinions about public issues – means that Canadians have little understanding of why their representatives make such compromises.
An example of that fear: during a background interview, one politician told me that, as a first-time provincial candidate, “I knew I was part of a larger franchise and I would only be able to sell drinks in the same size cup as everyone else. But I did think I would be able to at least decorate my store the way I wanted and have my own customer service approach.”
But when we sat down for what became a sweaty, two-hour on-camera interview, the politician talked about being a supporter party discipline.
The politician later told me about suffering “sleepless nights” contemplating what may have been said during that interview, which I left on the cutting room floor.
Meanwhile, another former MLA compared being a member of caucus to being a member of the “mafia,” declining to talk publicly about party discipline because “I still have to do business in this environment.”
I did find some past and present elected officials in B.C. who were brave enough to take on that political mafia, providing specific examples of when they’ve been at odds with their party and why they didn’t speak out.
I hope Whipped makes it easier for other politicians to do the same thing – and be honest with their constituents about how our system of government really works.
In fact, that’s already happened in B.C.
Following a screening of Whipped in Victoria, former B.C. Liberal leadership candidate and senior cabinet minister George Abbott spoke about how “the whole business of how we do business in that large stone structure is to mask any indication that there’s diversity of thought or division” within the province’s political parties.
“No one has got a monopoly on wisdom and yet we try to pretend that’s what we have over in the great stone structure,” he continued. “And that’s really the fundamental that has to change.”
But until more politicians across Canada follow Abbott’s lead, the fantasy that we live in a democracy between elections will continue.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Sean Holman
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