Editorial Who’s in charge here?

Politics can make for some very peculiar reasoning. Take, for example, our recent general election, won by the Progressive Conservatives with what appears to be a resounding majority — 169 of 295 seats.

“Not good enough,” say government opponents. “They didn’t get a majority of the votes.”

The PCs took 43% of the over-all vote while other parties split the rest. So, according to this logic, the PCs have no mandate to govern but must bow to the will of the other two parties represented in Parliament, the Liberals and the NDP. That way, the majority of Canadian voters will be heeded.

Never mind that such a coalition of the opposition parties would represent only 116 of the ridings that elected MPs. The logic here seems to be that if those who had opposed free trade, the one major issue in the election, had banded together the PCs would have been defeated.

That assumes that all those who voted NDP would have voted Liberal or all those who voted Liberal would have supported the NDP. The two opposition parties may have little to distinguish themselves from each other, but that still seems like a very big “if.”

But if opponents of the government would disregard Canada’s means of electing a government, preferring some method that would let a simple majority of voters decide, they must be aghast at what is happening to the Meech Lake accord.

Here is a constitutional amendment that has been ratified by Parliament with the support of all three parties and has gained the support of eight of 10 provinces representing 95% of the Canadian population. Yet the accord is being held up because it cannot gain the support of two provincial legislatures representing the remaining 5%.

In the case of New Brunswick, which has not ratified the accord, those who opposed the provincial Liberal party led by Frank McKenna have absolutely no representation in the provincial legislature. In Manitoba, the other province where Meech Lake awaits approval, 12 NDP members who hold the balance of power in the 52-seat legislature are blocking the accord.

What a system.