MatthewFletcher
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14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - How to go about this · 0 replies · +1 points
From what I understand Brit backbenchers are much more likely to dissent for a few reasons:
1. Longer standing sense of tradition and the way things once were
2. There are way more of them - so many of them know they are never going to get to Cabinet or the plum patronage posts, so dissenting against their party doesn't hurt them as much; in some ways it helps because it raises their profile
3? I don't know if the British party leaders have the same control over candidate nominations that Canadian party leaders do? If they don't that's another reason.
14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - How to go about this · 3 replies · +1 points
2. Break up the power of the Executive over its regular party members. The way the Westminster system is supposed to work, is that the Cabinet, led by the PM, is the defacto executive with it role of providing advice to the Crown. Everyone else, including members who happen to be of the same "party" as the members of the Cabinet, should be free to vote as they like. The problem is that over the years, back bench MPs of the governing party have become beholden to PM and essentially voting machines, and hence the opposition MPs have also become beholden to their party leader, because no one wants to give up their advantage.
2.A - Alternative to limiting the PMs power is to elect the GG.
14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - How to go about this · 4 replies · +1 points
The Westminster system did not specifically envision parties, nor specifically envision not having parties, they developed organaically, like most things in our system. Court/country; conservatives/whigs; Conservatives/Liberals; Coservatives/(New)Labour, not necessarily in a straight intellectual lineage of course.
Having 308 individual MPs is a great thought but ultimately not possible, as is obvious from history, parties will form. What we do have more control over however is to break up some of the power of parties and break-up the power of the de facto Exectuvie branch (the PM).
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Anyone who writes about a compelling case "why Canada sucks" can go ahead and leave the country.
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