Democratic Renewal

Issue 2, March 2004

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News

The New Brunswick Commission on Legislative Democracy

In January, Premier Bernard Lord announced the creation of a nine-member commission to "identify options for an enhanced citizen-centred democracy for all New Brunswickers" The Commission represents a broad cross-section of people from all parts of the province. It will present a final report to the Premier by the end of December 2004. During the year, the Commission will consult the people of the province through public hearings, written submissions and an interactive website called Speak Up!

Premier Lord established the Commission because he was convinced that the political system needed modernization to keep up with social and economic change in the province. In a recent speech the Premier said that one of the greatest challenges facing democratic renewal is attracting the interest and participation of the people. "Unfortunately democratic reform is not very sexy. When the system breaks down (e.g. the sponsorship scandal) people prefer to play the blame game rather than addressing the underlying weaknesses of the system." As the Premier sees it, the challenge is to get people to see the connection between scandal and weak democratic institutions.

Quebec Prepares Legislation for the National Assembly

The Quebec Government of Premier Jean Charest plans to introduce legislation during the spring session of the National Assembly to replace the first past the post electoral system with a mixed system containing elements of the current constituency based system and proportional representation. The reforms have their origins in the 1998 provincial election when the Liberals won a substantial plurality of the votes but the Parti Quebecois won a majority of seats. A Commission appointed by the PQ government recommended substantial change in the electoral system and the then Liberal Opposition pledged to proceed with reform if elected.

While the primary motive for reform in Quebec is to enhance fairness in representation, the people of Quebec made it clear during the Commission's consultation phase that they wanted to retain directly elected MPs who represented constituencies. Hence the need for a mixed system. One of the challenges of such systems is that they create two classes of MPs, one elected in constituencies and another from party lists. At first glance that might seem to give the list Members an advantage in that they have more time to devote to parliamentary business. However Scotland's experience with a mixed system is that the constituency MPs have a higher status because they have won a head-to-head electoral competition. Some list MPs attach themselves to constituencies so as to connect with and represent a particular place and group of voters.