With her latest announcement that she will run in the Saanich
district in the next federal election, I decided to pick up
Elizabeth May's book to read what some of her thoughts are. "Losing
Confidence" is a good polemic on Canada's Parliamentary democracy
but it is her selection and omission of cases she presents which
reveals her political bias, which is most unfortunate because the
issues she raises are spot on.
The issues May raises are important ones in the discourse of
democracy in Canada and what reforms need to take place: The anemic
devolution of Parliament, the dangerous expansion of the PMO; the
concentration of the media, the lack of transparency of the RCMP;
and the Americanization of electoral politics. I agree with all of
them, but not in the way May presents them.
Part of the hypocrisy of May's arguments lie in the fact that May
herself is guilty of participating in the self-interested
machinations of partisan politics and lust for power. After all,
implicit with any Liberal party government in power is the
side-deal which will put May into the portfolio as Environment
Minister, elected or not.
May's Liberal Party bias is none the more evident than in her
discussion over the excessive abuses of power by the PMO and
unaccountability of the RCMP. May focuses an exorbitant amount of
time on Harper and the 2006 income tax leakage. She doesn't once
mention the 1997 APEC summit when the RCMP, by direct orders of
Chretien and the PMO, pepper-sprayed peaceful protesters on
Suharto's motorcade route.
Furthermore, because of the unfair distribution of ridings slanted
towards Ontario and Quebec, the Liberal party is the only party in
the current system with the possibility of winning a majority
government themselves without a coalition partner. Again, something
May neglects to mention because of her political bias towards the
Liberals.
Finally, while May is correct in bringing up the issue of media
concentration, May fails to address whatsoever the impact of and
the explosion of the Internet as becoming the primary medium with
which Canadians now engage with for political discourse, thereby
cutting out traditional media altogether.
This book raises some very important issues with what is wrong with
democracy in Canada today. However, because May has chosen to slant
her polemic so far to the side of the Liberals, her arguments must
be taken with a grain of salt.