How to Gain a Majority Government

 By Henry Srebrnik, Charlottetown Guardian

If you can’t win a majority in an election, what to do? Simple: buy one. Ask a banker! As it happens, we already have one running the country.

Marilyn Gladu, the member of parliament for Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong, is the fifth MP to cross the floor in as many months and the fourth Conservative, joining Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont, Greater Toronto Area MP Michael Ma, and Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux. Are there others waiting in the wings?

Last month, Prime Minister Mark Carney also added former New Democratic MP Lori Idlout, who represents Nunavut, to his caucus. Very soon she may be joined by Doly Begum, the Liberal candidate in the April 13 Scarborough Southwest byelection, who was until recently a deputy leader of the Ontario NDP. This was less of a surprise. I’ve often considered the NDP as a “farm team” for the Liberals, certainly in terms of ideas!

But these Conservative defections are something new. Is the “Trump factor” creating a desire for a “national,” de facto “coalition” government for Canada? “This all comes at a time when the country as a whole is uniting -- uniting to move forward,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa on April 8, gesturing toward Parliament Hill. As for Gladu, she defended her decision by explaining that “you want serious leadership and a real plan to build a stronger and more independent Canadian economy.” She and the other floor-crossers all pointed to Carney’s leadership and focus on the economy and getting more major infrastructure projects as reasons why they joined his caucus.

The Liberals have admitted to maintaining a target list of potential crossers. Two Liberal sources told the Globe and Mail that the party had identified ten potential recruits when efforts began last year. Every crosser has been rewarded in one way or another. This amounts to the construction of a majority government through backroom recruitment, not through the democratic verdict of a general election.

British anarchists in the past had a risible slogan: “No matter whom you vote for, the government will get in.” In Canada, replace “government” with “Liberals.” Who needs elections?

This whole thing may prove a boon for Alberta separatists. Will Albertans now want out? For many in that province, whose oil sector drives its economy, the answer increasingly may be yes.

After all, as political scientist Albert Hirschman pointed out in his book Exit, Voice and Loyalty, if you feel you have little say in the governing of your country, you may feel you have no choice but to leave.

So even if floor-crossing has always been a feature of Canadian politics, if the Tories can never win a federal election these days, and Stephen Harper may end up being the last Conservative prime minister, power will be concentrated forever in eastern Canada. If you can’t beat ‘em...

And to get back to Great Britain, two historical examples come to mind:

“Bought and sold for English gold” is a famous phrase from the 1791 song “Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation” by the Scottish poet Robert Burns. 

The song is a bitter political commentary on the Act of Union of 1707, which united Scotland and England to form the United Kingdom. It decries those members of the Scottish parliament who signed away its independence, which its opponents considered an act of treachery.

In 1929, Labour Party Ramsay MacDonald returned to power in an election, but his government was soon faced with a worldwide economic recession.

The cabinet split, and MacDonald formed a so-called National Government with Conservative, and some Liberal, support. The subsequent 1931general election saw it win a landslide victory, taking 554 seats while the main Labour Party was reduced to just 52 seats.

This decimated the party but left MacDonald and his tiny handful of “National Labour” members of parliament in power, though as little more than a front for a Conservative-dominated administration. The coalition won another landslide victory in 1935, and, due to the Second World War, remained in power with no further balloting until 1945. In fact the next three prime ministers – Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain, and Winston Churchill – all Conservatives, never won an election in their own right.

Here in Canada, is the House of Commons now a marketplace? For Carney’s Liberals, the April 13 byelections were just the icing on the cake.