Our parliamentary system is in a state of disrepair so advanced that it has lost much of its relevance
Whatever their opinion of the result, Canadians might take some satisfaction from the recent election, if only for what did not happen. The paper balloting process once again worked without a hitch. No one challenged the legitimacy of the result. The victors did not vow revenge upon their enemies. Democracy may be in decline or in retreat elsewhere, notably in the United States, but in Canada it remains, as we perceive it, in relatively good health, a model for others to follow.
We are accustomed to thinking of ourselves as one of the world‘s great democracies. Didn’t the Economist Intelligence Unit, in its latest annual Democracy Index, rank us 14th among the world‘s democracies, one of only 25 “full democracies” around the world? Didn’t Freedom House rank us fifth in its annual Freedom in the World report, with a score of 39 out of 40 for “political rights”?
