Gene, it's a complicated question you ask but I'll try to answer it in a simple way.
We have a parliamentary democracy, in theory. 100 years ago we broke with British tradition, in order to be more "democratic" (be careful what you wish for) and began to have the broad party membership elect the party leader, rather than the leader being selected by the Members of Parliament, from among those same Members of Parliament.
In the British system, the moment the Prime Minister gets too big for his britches, or puts the party at risk of losing the next election (and all those MP's lose their jobs), the party can depose the Prime Minister and elect a new one. It is an ad hoc, developed over centuries, check on the power of the PM. Remember Margaret Thatcher? As soon as she overstayed her welcome, she was gone. As was her successor John Major when he hung around too long and put electoral success at risk.
In Canada, because the leader (and therefore the PM if the party won the election) is selected occasionally by a mass vote among paid up party members, a number of things can go wrong.
First, the leader can be part of a movement that highjacks the party, simply by buying memberships that give the right to cast a vote. No vetting as who those memberships are sold to or if they are even real people.
Second, the leader signs the nomination papers of every candidate that intends to stand for election. No signature, no job. So unquestioned loyalty becomes the order of the day, if you want to keep or get your job as an MP.
Third, with a now compliant group of MPs, who will vote like trained seals, the office of the Prime Minister (like your West Wing) becomes the real power. They instruct the MP's on what to say and when to say it. As Justin Trudeau's father said in the 1970's about his MP's "100 feet from Parliament, they are nobodies". And it's true. When the PMO sends a directive about jumping, they all ask "How High"?
When we elect a government with a majority in Parliament, we have elected a 4 year dictatorship. By abandoning the system of MP's electing the leader, there is no way to stop centralization of power in the PMO.
The real power in Canada today lies with a fellow named Gerald Butts. A close college friend of Justin who is his chief of staff and head of the PMO. Trudeau is dumb but telegenic and with a popular last name in some parts of the country. Butts is anything but dumb. They made a deal. Butts said "you be the figure head, I'll be the brains and we'll run the country". Butts is a radical socialist on the Green Agenda. He destroyed the Ontario economy in the 2000's as chief of staff to the Ontario premier at that time, then moved down the highway to Ottawa to screw the whole country.
Trudeau passed a bill last year, C71, that layed the groundwork for this ban. The bill created the law but did nothing in this area. This decree last week was simply a REGULATORY change to that law.
Last edited by canvasback; 05/08/20 04:24 AM.
