A Mature Country Does Not Demand Absolutist Party Discipline

Posted on 2023/02/08 by J.W.J. Bowden

The Dorchester Review recently published my article last month “Party Discipline and the King Doctrine”, in which I recount a brief history of party discipline in Canada over the last century, the Reform Act, and the significance of what we witnessed one year ago in January-February 2022, when Conservative MPs ousted Erin O’Toole as leader and when two backbench Liberal MPs overtly and ostentatiously criticised the Prime Minister, both his rhetoric and his policies.

The current minority 44th Parliament has continued to break barriers and pierce through long-held taboos about partydiscipline in Canadian politics.

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Posted in Party Discipline, Political Parties | 8 Comments

A Tribute to David E. Smith

Posted on 2023/01/03 by J.W.J. Bowden

I experienced a strange and sad serendipity today.

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Posted in Reviews, Tributes and Memorials | 2 Comments

Quebec Unilaterally Exempts Itself from the Oath of Allegiance: The Demise of the Crown Reinforces Autonomist Nationalism

Posted on 2022/12/07 by J.W.J. Bowden

The New Nationalism in 21st-Century Quebec

The recent demise of the Crown from Queen Elizabeth II to King Charles III has made the occasional flare ups of active derision toward constitutional monarchy the new normal state of affairs in Quebec and has merged with the powerful current of unilateral autonomism already flowing through Quebec’s politics. Charles III happened to ascend to the throne and become the King of Canada during Quebec’s most recent provincial general election, which provided nationalists and secessionists long tired of the oath of allegiance to the Crown that MNAs-elect must swear to become full-fledged MNAs the perfect political opportunity. The oath of allegiance to the Sovereign in 128 of the Constitution Act, 1867 has become the latest flashpoint in this New Nationalism in Quebec.

In my view, nationalism in Quebec has gone through three distinct stages since Patriation in 1982. This is how I perceive the evolution of Quebec’s politics over the last forty years as a bilingual but not bicultural English-speaker peering in on another world, so you should ingest as many grains of salt as you think fit.

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Posted in Amending Formulas, Consolidations, Constitution (Written), Oaths of Allegiance | 2 Comments

Stripping Disgraced Former Senators of their Honorific Title

Posted on 2022/12/07 by J.W.J. Bowden

The Saga of Former Senator Don Meredith Haunts Us Still

Don Meredith resigned as a Senator from Ontario in May 2017 before the Senate could expel him outright on the recommendation of the Second Report of the Standing Committee on Ethics and Conflict of Interest for Senators.[1] The Ethics Committee found that Meredith’s sexual relationship with a young woman (who, according to the Ethics Officer’s initial report from March 2017, did not work in Meredith’s office) breached the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Code for Senators.[2] Continue reading →

Posted in Crown (Powers and Office), Expulsion of Members, Parliament, Parliamentary Privilege, The Honours System | 1 Comment

With Andor, Star Wars Finally Gets Politics Right

Posted on 2022/12/05 by J.W.J. Bowden

The Sede Vacante: No One Presides Over the Senate under Fascist Dictatorship

The prequel trilogy contained the kernels of several interesting ideas but suffered under George Lucas’s rudimentary understanding of politics. The system of government of the Old Republic infamously makes no sense and combines a random hodgepodge of elements of presidentialism and parliamentarism.

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Posted in Comparative, Film & Television, Parliamentarism v Presidentialism, Reviews | Leave a comment