Parliamentary Democracy in Crisis

by Russell, Peter H.; Sossin, Lorne

• ISBN13: 9781442640764
• ISBN10: 1442640766
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-04-25
• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr

Summary

In November 2008, as the economic decline was being fully realized, Canada's newly elected minority government, led by Conservative Stephen Harper, presented a highly divisive fiscal update in advance of a proposed budget. Unable to support the motion, the Liberal and New Democratic Parties, with the backing of the Bloc QubWith a foreword by former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, Parliamentary Democracy in Crisis brings together journalists, political scientists, and leading constitutional experts to analyse the crisis and to discuss the nature of Canada's democracy. The contributors bring perspectives from both French and English Canada and cover all aspects of the crisis, including the prorogation of Parliament, the role of the governor general, the proposed Liberal-NDP coalition, the challenges of minority parliaments, and the now-evident rifts in the culture of Canadian democracy.Knowledgeable and comprehensive but still highly accessible, Parliamentary Democracy in Crisis provides a reasoned and timely response to Canada's parliamentary crisis of November 2008.

Table of Contents

Foreword: The Right Honourable	p. ix
Introduction	p. xiii
The Events And Their Background
The 'Crisis': A Narrative	p. 3
A Crisis Not Made in a Day	p. 19
The Governor General's Decision To Prorogue
To Prorogue or Not to Prorogue: Did the Governor General Make the Right Decision?	p. 33
The Governor General's Suspension of Parliament: Duty Done or a Perilous Precedent?	p. 47
Prime Minister Harper's Parliamentary 'Time Out': A Constitutional Revolution in the Making?	p. 63
Constitutional Conventions
Why the Governor General Matters	p. 79
When Silence Isn't Golden: Constitutional Conventions, Constitutional Culture, and the Governor General	p. 91
Of Representation, Democracy, and Legal Principles: Thinking about the Impensé	p. 105
Coalitions And Parliamentary Government
Coalition Government: When It Happens, How It Works	p. 123
Learning to Live with Minority Parliaments	p. 136
The Coalition That Wasn't: A Lost Reform Opportunity	p. 150
Tensions In Canada's Democratic Culture
Western Canada and the 'Illegitimacy' of the Liberal-NDP Coalition Government	p. 163
Parliamentary Democracy versus Faux Populist Democracy	p. 175
Ultimately, the System Worked	p. 189
Contributors	p. 195
Index	p. 197
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