Quote:
Originally posted by splck
It's sad to me because the Prime minister is much like an elected dictator. If you don't vote the party line, you get tossed. If we had free votes in the house a member could at least vote the way his or her constituents wanted rather than the way the PMO wanted them to.
There is no way proportional representation will ever happen, the ruling party would never allow it IMO.
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I agree that the PMO has a lot of power when they have a majority government. The Canadian PM is the most powerful (internally speaking) ruler in the western world. None of the balances that exist in other governments exist in our system.
Three things can fix this:
1) An elected Senate with actual teeth
2) Allowing members to vote as they wish rather than the party line
3) Proportional representation (more chance of minority governments)
Martin seems to be making a lot of noise about the latter two issues. It will be interesting to see where he goes with this...