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Adam Chapnick's Blog

On Jagmeet Singh's letter to the governor general...

8/3/2021

1 Comment

 
Last week, the leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, Jagmeet Singh, wrote a letter to our newly installed governor general, Mary Simon, asking her to turn down Prime Minister Justin Trudeau if he tries to precipitate a snap election by requesting a dissolution of Parliament.
 
As The Globe and Mail’s John Ibbitson has noted, “Mr. Singh was speaking nonsense.”
 
At this point, if the prime minister asks for an election, the governor general will have no realistic choice but to grant his request.
 
If you don’t believe Ibbitson (or me), take a look at these two blogs (here and here) by the expert on this issue, Carleton University’s Philippe Lagassé.
 
And if that isn’t good enough for you, try Lagassé’s 18-page academic explanation, complete with 80 footnotes.
 
Like Ibbitson and others, I suspect that Lagassé is disappointed in Singh’s actions.
 
Such letters, he suggests in an earlier blog, “are mostly performative. The writers know it’s not going to happen, but it helps draw attention to their cause. But it also feeds ignorance about our constitution and undermines our democratic principles. That doesn’t help anybody.”
 
Put another way, Singh is deliberately spreading misinformation, and for that he should be ashamed.
 
It seems to me, however, that such criticism lets the NDP leader off too easily.
 
In this particular case, Singh’s hypocrisy is absolutely breath-taking.
 
Less than a year ago, the NDP premier of British Columbia, John Horgan, approached BC’s lieutenant governor, Janet Austin, to request a snap election.
 
At the time, just like Prime Minister Trudeau, Horgan held a minority of the seats in the BC legislature.
 
But, again like Trudeau, his grasp on power, and consequent ability to run the business of government, was secure – in this case thanks to a signed confidence and supply agreement with the BC Green Party.
 
Horgan’s decision was widely criticized at the time as a cynical attempt at a power grab by a leader who the polls suggested was well-positioned to secure a majority.
 
But I don’t recall Singh or his party having any problem with it.
 
Personally, I was disappointed by Horgan’s actions, and if Prime Minister Trudeau takes us to an election prior to October 2023, I will find his move similarly upsetting.
 
I don’t see a compelling public policy reason to force an election right now, especially given the likelihood of a fourth wave of COVID-19 this fall.
 
I was also less than impressed in 2010 when Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggested that “losers don’t get to form coalitions” under the Westminster-style system.
 
His statement was both crass and untrue (any combination of political parties that can secure the confidence of the House can form a government, no matter whether any of them won the most seats in the previous election), and he knew it.
 
His close ally, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, had done exactly that one year earlier, and Mr. Harper certainly didn’t object then.
 
Some readers might counter that politics has always been ugly, and that it is naïve to expect better of our elected representatives.
 
I understand the sentiment, but Mr. Singh has been appealing to Canadian youth by suggesting that he’s a different sort of politician.
 
His letter to Mary Simon suggests otherwise.
 
And that is a shame.
 
***
I suspect that you will find a more sympathetic take on Mr. Singh’s thinking about political life in his memoir, Love & Courage: My Story of Family, Resilience, and Overcoming the Unexpected.
 
***
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1 Comment
David Rovinsky link
8/4/2021 12:23:37 am

Singh’s letter to the GG was of course a publicity stunt, and it was disappointing to see him join the chorus of politicians who misconstrue how the Westminster system works for some momentary partisan gain. The NDP always portrays itself as the party that knows better. Not here. The issue is not whether the GG should be refusing a request for dissolution (I fully agree--we should not be “going there”), but whether Bill C-16 (the 2007 Act creating the fixed election date) is working as intended and ought to be reviewed. The problem here is that many Canadians would like to amend the law to say “the Prime Minister cannot advise an early dissolution if the Government has not lost the confidence of the House of Commons.” This would impinge on the royal prerogative of dissolution, and would thus require a constitutional amendment … which when it involves the powers of the Crown means consent of all ten provinces. So without a constitutional amendment, the GG retains the power to dissolve at any time on the advice of the PM. As fond as many of us are of the Charter of Rights, the 1982 Constitution Act has boxed us in on many other things.

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    Adam Chapnick is a professor of defence studies at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC). The views expressed here are entirely his own.

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  • Adam Chapnick
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      • Thesis Defence Committees
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      • Virtually Learning
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  • Research
    • Articles
    • Book Chapters
    • Books and Edited Collections >
      • Situating Canada in a Changing World: Constructing a Modern and Prosperous Future
      • Canada on the United Nations Security Council
      • The Harper Era in Canadian Foreign Policy
      • Manuel de rédaction à l’usage des militaires
      • John W. Holmes: An Introduction, Special Issue of International Journal
      • Academic Writing for Military Personnel​
      • Canada’s Voice: The Public Life of John Wendell Holmes
      • Canadas of the Mind
      • The Middle Power Project
      • Through Our Eyes: An Alumni History of the University of Toronto Schools, 1960-2000
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