Comuzzi's Mortal Sin

You should never lecture your readers, I'm told. And I'm certain that 99 per cent of the time that's good advice. Moreover, you should never repeat tiresome old arguments. That's undoubtedly true 99 per cent of the time. Perhaps the only successful exception was Cato the Elder who knew that Carthage was Rome's eternal enemy, a fact he presented to the Senate ad nauseam. Even when the subject wasn't Carthage, he ended every speech with the words Carthaginem esse delendam (Carthage must be destroyed). Finally his colleagues got the idea, and it was.

The catalyst for my breaking the rule is Joe Comuzzi, who, until he was tossed out of caucus by Stéphane Dion last Wednesday, was the Liberal MP for Thunder Bay. Mr. Dion has effectively ended Comuzzi's political career, about which more in a moment.

First let's look at our "system" on paper, and then examine what happens in reality. I will use the federal model but the provinces are the same.

MPs are elected by constituency, and the prime minister gets his job by having the support of the majority of them. The prime minister then appoints a government (cabinet) which in theory is thereafter always at the mercy of the House of Commons, which can boot it out any time it feels like it.

Damnation

Now the reality. The Commons is a party system and everyone there (with the very rare exception of an independent) was elected on a party ticket. Now please pay attention. Every single MP was permitted to carry the party banner only after his candidacy was approved, formally under the Canada Elections Act, by the party leader. Thus it is that the prime minister is an absolute dictator for his elected term of office. The only time a majority government was ever turfed out was in 1878 when John A. Macdonald resigned over the "Pacific Scandal." In those days there was nothing like the party discipline that prevails today.

What does this mean? (Brace yourselves.) Not a particle of policy comes from the members of parliament -- it all, every last jot and tittle, comes from the prime minister whose advice comes from grey-faced, non-elected advisors in the prime minister's office. The role of the government MP is to smile and applaud. Government backbenchers, and even cabinet ministers -- hell, especially cabinet ministers -- do exactly as they're told.

What sin did Mr. Comuzzi commit to deserve the political equivalent of capital punishment?

Against M. Dion's orders, he supported the government budget because it was good for the riding he represents. Back in 1993, Liberal John Nunziata campaigned against the GST because that was Liberal policy in their "little red book." When the new Liberal government brought in its first budget, Nunziata voted against it because, contrary to his party's platform, Jean Chrétien decided to keep the GST after all.

Banished to the wasteland

What does being thrown out of a caucus mean?

You're a political pariah, traitor, a guy or gal who let the team down. You won't be going on any neat winter meetings in faraway tropical paradises nor will you get on whatever Commons committee you have a hankering for. But these problems are trivial compared to the leader's power to deny you the right to run for your former party even if your constituency organization nominates you again. The record of independents in Canadian elections is not encouraging.

Why must there be this ironclad party discipline? Why must a member of parliament be forced to go against his own opinion and that of his constituency lest he be tossed out of caucus and effectively barred from the House of Commons?

Are prime ministers so sure they're right that they must force members to agree? Or perhaps one might better ask, are they so uncertain that they must compel obedience?

John Nunziata was fired for supporting his party's election platform. Mr. Cormuzzi once was a cabinet minister. And we must mention John Cummings, the stalwart Tory defender of the West Coast fishery who's been banned from the Fisheries Committee by Prime Minister Harper because he had the temerity to criticize the new Fisheries Act, which he, and most West Coasters who know of these matters, thinks is seriously flawed.

Let's visit a constituency nomination for a party with a chance to form the government. Typically, there will be four or five in contention -- unless the leader parachutes a candidate into the riding and orders his/her selection -- and each of them bids for support by describing how he/she will make an excellent MP. His/her supporters will argue that so and so is best because of all the fine characteristics he/she possesses. At the nominating meeting each candidate will serve up meaningless platitudes and point to his/her sterling record on the school board, city council or whatever. The members (those not already committed, that is) weigh the choices and pick Bloggs. Oddly, Bloggs never points out that, if elected, he'll do what he's bloody well told; rather, he will emphatically state that his constituency will always come first. As a talk show host, I've heard innumerable candidates who promised, cross my heart, that they would speak out and act on behalf of their constituents no matter what the prime minister says. Every damned one of them quickly fell in line. It's called political survival.

Get going on reform

This is where I spank you, my readers, because so many of you act like 10 year olds, no longer really believing in Santa Claus but still sitting on his knee just in case. You hope against hope that what you were taught in school was correct even though in your tummy you know it was rubbish. How much more evidence do you need that the system stinks? You're all like Charlie Brown and the football. You know that Lucy will pull the ball away, as she always does, but you go along with the game anyway. You all believe that your party has a fine candidate even though he/she could be replaced with a fencepost with hair -- or a beard for that matter -- and nothing would change. You know in your gut that we haven't got a democracy, but a limited dictatorship. You know that we badly need reform but choose simply not to do anything, rather than get involved.

There is an answer, and it's a change in the voting system.

That for another day.

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