Patterns showing danger to the moral health of the Canadian body politic

Recent events in Parliament have caused me wonder if how my father taught me to vote no longer stands as good advice for Canadian democracy.

Democratic Opinion Sharing

My dad believed that voting for the best person was more important than voting for a particular party. The conscience and good sense of the person who was elected was a crucial element that would come into play when inevitably important decisions had to be made that had not been foreseen in the platform of the political party.

The memoir written by Bill Blaikie, “The Blaikie Report: An Insider’s Look at Faith and Politics” recalls a time when whipping MPs was much more restricted in Parliament and the candidate was not obliged to obtain the party leader’s endorsement and proclaim endorsement of the cultural policy of the party. An article by Paul W. Bennett in the The Chronicle Herald comments that Bill Blaikie is raising larger questions about the moral health of the Canadian body politic.

Bill Blaikie, the long-serving New Democratic Party MP and later Manitoba cabinet minister, is not afraid to confront the issue. His memoir, The Blaikie Report: An Insider’s Look at Faith and Politics, bravely goes where few dare roam, raising larger questions about the moral health of the Canadian body politic.

Brian Platt reports on the conscientious decision of Liberal MP John McKay and his discussions with the office of the Whip.

“The attestation clause is a regrettable example of that error. It is my view that applications for government grants that engage in non-political non-activist work should be free of ideological bias and political preference.”… In his letter, McKay says he chose not to attend the vote after conferring with Liberal caucus whip Pablo Rodriguez, whose office is responsible for party discipline on votes.

The threat to our democracy from the Whip enforcing party discipline is the loss of conscientious, intelligent, and critical thinking analysis of legislation by those good people we have elected to serve as our decision makers.

Bill Blaikie recalls some of the members that he knew were able to bring wisdom to Parliament without being shut down by party Whip.

When I was first elected to the House of Commons, one of my colleagues in the NDP caucus was Father Bob Ogle, a Roman Catholic priest who represented Saskatoon East. When Father Bob and I were elected in 1979, he was the health critic and I was the social policy critic. When we did some touring together across the country, we were sometimes called "the God Squad" by the press. Indeed, I suppose that the first few NDP caucuses I sat in were certainly open to being caricatured as the God Squad. The Rev. Stanley Knowles, the Rev. Jim Manly, Father Bob Ogle, Father Andy Hogan, Anglican worker priest Dan Heap, and myself—a half-dozen clergy in caucuses that ranged from 26 to just over 30.

Some recent opinion pieces on the decision of NDP member David Christopherson to vote his conscience by Andrew Dreschel

Although firmly pro-choice, Christopherson believes the new rules for the Canada Summer Jobs program are an attack on people's freedom of conscience and right to dissent.
"If the law is an ass, you have right to say so," said Christopherson. "You have to obey the Charter; you have to obey the laws. But you don't have to bow and scrape and commit fealty. You don't have to say I love the law."
"In my view, ticking off that box was taking away a right that they have and that needs to be maintained."

and Peter Wall in the Hamilton Spectator

David is my MP, and I am proud of him. I do not always agree with him; I probably do not agree with his actions on this particular matter. I also have a deep respect for a parliamentary party system in which loyalty and discipline are significant characteristics.
However, I also elect representatives to think, discern, struggle, disagree, use their own intellect and, ultimately, cast votes based on all of the many and sometimes conflicting factors at work. I am weary of parliamentary systems in which a blind party 'follow the leader' system seems to have taken hold. I hope that I do not always agree with my MP; rather, I hope that he does follow his conscience, and that he both behaves and votes in ways which are consistent with his serious and important weighing of the merits of issues. David was doing his job — the job that I and others elected him to do. How sad that that should be seen as breaking ranks or being disloyal or worthy of punishment. Well done, David. Well written, Andrew.

show that MP’s who still take their responsibility to their constituents and conscience seriously receive support, even from constituents who do not agree with their decision.

A political system where the role of the elected member is always to vote in accord with the party leader will tend to reduce candidates to “yes” people and further alienate Canadians young and old from participation in a political system that is anti-intellectual and without moral reconsideration of issues.
References


(2012, March 4). Blaikie: Faith and politics do mix | The Chronicle Herald. Retrieved April 2, 2018, from http://thechronicleherald.ca/books/69837-blaikie-faith-and-politics-do-mix 

(2011, October 18). The God Squad has a Left Wing, Too | Convivium Magazine. Retrieved April 2, 2018, from https://www.convivium.ca/articles/the-god-squad-has-a-left-wing-too 

(2018, April 2). Second Liberal MP denounces Summer Jobs abortion-rights clause .... Retrieved April 2, 2018, from http://nationalpost.com/news/politics/second-liberal-mp-denounces-summer-jobs-attestation-says-it-misrepresents-the-charter

(2018, March 23). Opinion | NDP punish David Christopherson for breaking ranks .... Retrieved April 2, 2018, from https://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/8346020-ndp-punish-david-christopherson-for-breaking-ranks/

(n.d.). March 31: The truth about Hawking's beliefs, bravo to Christopherson .... Retrieved April 2, 2018, from https://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/8364178-march-31-the-truth-about-hawking-s-beliefs-bravo-to-christopherson-and-other-letters-to-the-editor/