Good Coalition Analogy (If I say so myself)
I was talking politics at work today and came up with an explanation, an analogy, of why I feel the move by the Liberals, NDP and Bloc was undemocratic. They failed so it's old news, but regardless:
The Liberals, NDP and Bloc together have 163 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons. Thus, if they were to form a coalition, the resulting party would control a majority of the seats. The assumption is that the support for the new party, let's call it the LNB, would equal the sum of the support the three individual parties currently enjoy. This is a fallacy. Here's why:
Imagine for a moment that the Liberals split into 100 parties. Each of these new parties focuses entirely on pleasing a single demographic, be it by employment, sex, race, creed, social status, income, etc. So for example we would have the Police Party, a party which aims its election promises with only the police in mind. Higher salaries, fewer work hours, better benefits, less crime, etc. etc. The idea is that people generally vote for what is best for them as individuals, not what is best for the country. Now the police party would, we assume, gain a lot of support from the boys and girls in blue, but not from anyone else.
But then we also have the Fireman Party, the Teachers' Party, the Jewish Party, the Lower Middle Class Party, etc. etc. You get the picture. Each party aims to please its target group and nothing but.
Come election day, we expect none of these parties to win. In fact, it would be odd if any got more than 1% or 2% of the total vote. But we expect them to do well among their respective groups.
The next day, these parties all coalesce into the Liberal Party again. Surprise! Now they're HUGE! Ignore if you please ladies and gentlemen, the fact that Joe the policeman would never vote for the Fireman Party, and Linda the teacher would never vote for the Jewish Party (she's an atheist). Now their individual opinions don't matter as the party has disappeared into the mass that was previously (and is now once again) the Liberal Party.
Now, would you or would you not agree that the resulting party's support in the public is NOT equal to the sum of the individual mini parties that gathered the support of the various groups?
Well, this exaggerated example is exactly why a Liberal, NDP and Bloc coalition taking power without a vote is not democratic.
The Liberals, NDP and Bloc together have 163 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons. Thus, if they were to form a coalition, the resulting party would control a majority of the seats. The assumption is that the support for the new party, let's call it the LNB, would equal the sum of the support the three individual parties currently enjoy. This is a fallacy. Here's why:
Imagine for a moment that the Liberals split into 100 parties. Each of these new parties focuses entirely on pleasing a single demographic, be it by employment, sex, race, creed, social status, income, etc. So for example we would have the Police Party, a party which aims its election promises with only the police in mind. Higher salaries, fewer work hours, better benefits, less crime, etc. etc. The idea is that people generally vote for what is best for them as individuals, not what is best for the country. Now the police party would, we assume, gain a lot of support from the boys and girls in blue, but not from anyone else.
But then we also have the Fireman Party, the Teachers' Party, the Jewish Party, the Lower Middle Class Party, etc. etc. You get the picture. Each party aims to please its target group and nothing but.
Come election day, we expect none of these parties to win. In fact, it would be odd if any got more than 1% or 2% of the total vote. But we expect them to do well among their respective groups.
The next day, these parties all coalesce into the Liberal Party again. Surprise! Now they're HUGE! Ignore if you please ladies and gentlemen, the fact that Joe the policeman would never vote for the Fireman Party, and Linda the teacher would never vote for the Jewish Party (she's an atheist). Now their individual opinions don't matter as the party has disappeared into the mass that was previously (and is now once again) the Liberal Party.
Now, would you or would you not agree that the resulting party's support in the public is NOT equal to the sum of the individual mini parties that gathered the support of the various groups?
Well, this exaggerated example is exactly why a Liberal, NDP and Bloc coalition taking power without a vote is not democratic.
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