Party Government in Canada: Why Are Canadians Ambivalent about Parties in Parliament?

Canada has a Westminster-style parliamentary system of government. But it is also an exceptionally large country with significant regional divisions, and heavily culturally influenced by the adjacent United States and its very different political system. This has led to ambivalent attitudes toward party government and the general role of parties in Parliament, and a longstanding fascination with more independent legislators similar to the American Congress (at least historically). While minority governments are common in Canada (Godbout and Cochrane 2022) coalition governments are not, to the point of being viewed as illegitimate and undemocratic, and there is resistance to even clarifying in writing the roles of parties in government (Aucoin et al 2011). Party cohesion is very high in Canadian House of Commons voting (Godbout 2020). Yet "excessive party discipline" is commonly identified as a key democratic problem in Canadian politics (Aucoin et al 2011; Marland 2020), and "more independence for MPs" is among the most common proposed parliamentary reforms. The appointed upper Senate, historically dominated by the two major parties, was recently reformed to an independent appointment process, and over half the chamber now does not have a party affiliation at all. And in general, Canadians demonstrate a poor understanding of the fused nature of the parliamentary system that combines representation with governance through parties (Malloy 2023). These all reflect ambivalent attitudes toward the role of parties in legislatures and government itself, to the point of sometimes seeing parties not as vehicles of democracy but almost anti-democratic. This paper will analyze reasons for this including influence by American proximity; the weak institutional bases of Canadian parties, the single member plurality voting system; the bifurcated Canadian party system with little linkage between federal and provincial parties and party systems, and the perennial importance of regionalism. It will draw particular comparisons with the similar Westminster systems of the United Kingdom and Australia to explore why Canadians seem so ambivalent about party government. References: Aucoin, Peter, and Mark Jarvis and Lori Turnbull (2011) Democratizing the Constitution: Reforming Responsible Government (Emond Montgomery) Godbout, Jean-François (2020) Lost On Division: Party Unity in the Canadian Parliament (University of Toronto Press) Godbout, Jean-François, and Christopher Cochrane (2022) 'Minority Governments in Canada: Stability through Voting Alliances', in Bonnie N Field, and Shane Martin (eds), Minority Governments in Comparative Perspective (Oxford University Press). Malloy, Jonathan (2023) The Paradox of Parliament (University of Toronto Press). Marland, Alex (2020) Whipped: Party Discipline in Canada (University of British Columbia Press).