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FIRST READING: Why Canadian PMs are the closest thing the democratic world has to a dictator

Published

1 year ago

May 17, 2023

An NDPer is launching a Quixotic bid to rein in prime ministerial power, but he certainly has a point

Art for a since-cancelled documentary by Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is obviously not a dictator, but like all Canadian prime ministers he enjoys a level of executive and legislative power that is virtually unmatched in the democratic world. Photo by Tucker Carlson Original Documentaries

Not one of these appointments was subjected to oversight by the House of Commons. When Michelle O’Bonsawin was picked for the Supreme Court last August, she didn’t have to face a single official question about her extremely limited judicial experience.

Similarly, there was no public vetting process for Trudeau’s appointment of Governor General Julie Payette. If there had been one, they probably would have uncovered evidence that Payette had a history of not getting along well with staff.

Even among Westminster peers, Canada stands out for putting all of these powers in the hands of one person. Australian prime ministers can appoint judges, but they face an elected Senate. Supreme Court judges in the U.K. are appointed, by law, on the recommendations of a selection commission. And in the United States, a president can’t even appoint a cabinet without Senate confirmation.

The cover is a photo illustration. Chretien never actually dressed like this. Photo by Archive.org

Unfettered executive control over the civil service

We’re not quite done with the sweeping appointment powers of the prime minister, because they also get unchecked control to decide who heads up the more than two hundred agencies and Crown corporations under the federal umbrella.

The Canadian civil service is ostensibly different from the U.S. civil service in that it isn’t headed up by openly partisan operators. A U.S. president will openly install political appointees to head up everything from the National Science Foundation to the Environmental Protection Agency, often treating the appointments as patronage no different than an ambassadorial post.

The Prime Minister’s Office doesn’t do this on paper, but that’s often the effect after enough positions have come up for renewal. For example, Isabelle Hudon was an advisor to Trudeau before he appointed her as head of the Business Development Bank of Canada (where she quickly ran up a bunch of questionable expenses on a plan to remake the insititution “from scratch”). And when the Harper government felt like shaking up the Canadian Museum of Civilization, they found a CEO who would do it for them.

Control over when Parliament convenes

When Joe Clark won a minority victory in the 1979 federal election, he waited four months after his appointment as prime minister before convening the House of Commons. Thus, for one third of 1979, Canada was effectively under the command of a man whose party had only won 35.46 per cent of the popular vote – and hadn’t even bothered to convene Parliament to hear from the representatives of some of the other 64.54 per cent of the country.

But Clark didn’t really have any obligation to convene the 31st Parliament if he didn’t want to: He could have kept unilaterally exercising the substantial executive powers of his office until the country ran out of money or bureaucrats stopped showing up to work, whichever happened first.

No prime minister has ever gone quite that rogue, but there are multiple examples from history of prime ministers proroguing a parliament that wasn’t acting to their satisfaction. In 2008, Harper prorogued Parliament to head off a planned no-confidence vote by the Opposition parties. More recently, Trudeau prorogued Parliament in 2020, instantly dissolving a probe into the WE Charity scandal.

In much of the rest of the democratic world, this kind of behaviour would be abhorrent to the point of inspiring riots. In Germany, the Bundestag tells the Chancellor when they’re meeting, not the other way around. The National Congress of Brazil convenes at the same time each year, regardless of what the president has to say about it.

The ability to dissolve government at the drop of a hat

This is a power that is arguably more advantageous even than the ability to prorogue Parliament at will. Whenever a prime minister feels like it, they can dissolve the entire government and plunge everyone into an election campaign for as long as they feel. The Canada Elections Act prescribes minimum election lengths (36 days), but there’s no maximum length other than the fact that the Constitution Act now requires Parliament to convene every 12 months. Stephen Harper called an unprecedented 78-day election for 2015 in an apparent bid to burn out the opposition in time for election day, but there’s really nothing stopping a prime minister from calling a marathon 365-day election (during which, naturally, they’d continue to exercise executive power).

From the beginning, prime ministers have been pretty shameless at using snap elections to acquire political power: Wait until your poll numbers are good and the opposition is in shambles, and then try and lock in a five-year mandate. That’s what Trudeau tried to do with his snap 2021 election, which did indeed coincide with a temporary peak in Liberal poll numbers paired with a disorganized and ill-funded opposition – but the gamble ultimately didn’t work.

IN OTHER NEWS

The Canadian health-care debate often devolves into a simple discussion over whether it’s better than the U.S. alternative (while ignoring the vast realm of non-U.S. countries with socialized health systems that are exponentially more efficient than Canada’s). Well, the U.S. system got a pretty glaring point in its favour this week when the Government of B.C. announced that wait times for radiation treatment had gotten so bad that patients would now be sent to cancer centres in Washington State at public expense. The irony of the program, of course, is that it remains illegal for British Columbians to buy health insurance that would allow them to obtain radiation treatment in private hospitals outside the public system. However, that same public system is now sending British Columbians to seek treatment in private hospitals outside the public system – provided they first cross an international border.

This video’s been getting a lot of attention on the more conservative corners of the internet. It shows a confused Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre being asked by a reporter whether Canada’s crisis of random violent attacks by repeat offenders on bail is actually a symptom of the “system’s” failure to properly support criminals. “Are you serious?” says Poilievre. Photo by CPAC Screenshot

Last week, the National Post’s Adam Zivo broke the story of how Canada’s plan to provide addicts with “safe supply” was instead making the overdose crisis worse in almost every way. Almost every addict receiving safe supply was reselling it to obtain harder illicit drugs, with the result that the black market was being flooded with dirt-cheap opioids provided free by Canadian taxpayers. Global News sent a reporter onto the streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside to see if Zivo was right, and within 30 minutes that reporter was easily able to score a baggie of hydromorphone (an incredibly potent opioid) still in its government packaging.

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Canada’s Denis Shapovalov wins Belgrade Open for his second ATP Tour title

Published

3 hours ago

November 9, 2024

Anne Joseph

BELGRADE, Serbia – Canada’s Denis Shapovalov is back in the winner’s circle.

The 25-year-old Shapovalov beat Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 in the Belgrade Open final on Saturday.

It’s Shapovalov’s second ATP Tour title after winning the Stockholm Open in 2019. He is the first Canadian to win an ATP Tour-level title this season.

His last appearance in a tournament final was in Vienna in 2022.

Shapovalov missed the second half of last season due to injury and spent most of this year regaining his best level of play.

He came through qualifying in Belgrade and dropped just one set on his way to winning the trophy.

Shapovalov’s best results this season were at ATP 500 events in Washington and Basel, where he reached the quarterfinals.

Medjedovic was playing in his first-ever ATP Tour final.

The 21-year-old, who won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF title last year, ends 2024 holding a 9-8 tour-level record on the season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

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Talks to resume in B.C. port dispute in bid to end multi-day lockout

Published

3 hours ago

November 9, 2024

Anne Joseph

VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.

The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.

The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.

The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.

The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.

MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.

In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.

“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.

“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”

In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.

“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.

The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.

“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”

The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.

The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.

A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

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The Royal Canadian Legion turns to Amazon for annual poppy campaign boost

Published

3 hours ago

November 9, 2024

Anne Joseph

The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.

Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.

Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.

Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.

“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.

“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”

Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.

“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.

Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.

“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”

But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.

Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.

“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.

Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.

The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

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