Hans J. Michelmann, Donald C. Story and Jeffrey S. Steeves, eds. - Political Leadership and Representation in Canada: Essays in Honour of John C. Courtney

Hans J. Michelmann, Donald C. Story and Jeffrey S. Steeves, eds.

Political Leadership and Representation in Canada: Essays in Honour of John C. Courtney

Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007

pp. xii + 219, hardback. ISBN 978-0-8020-9187-1.

John C. Courtney taught political science at the University of Saskatchewan for four decades until his retirement in 2004. His published work focused upon the selection of party leaders and aspects of Canada's electoral system, especially the work of boundary commissions in delimiting constituencies. The nine essays that comprise this Festschrift tribute naturally cover similar ground. R.K. Carty examines leadership conventions in twentieth-century Canada, endorsing Courtney's warning that the instability of party membership bases creates difficulties in substituting American-style primaries for the arcane practices of delegate selection. Elisabeth Gidengil and André Blais question the 'presidentialization' thesis that sees Canadian general elections largely as contests between rival wannabe prime ministers. Leaders, they conclude, have always been important in getting voters to the polls, but it is not clear that this element is getting any stronger. Cristine de Clercy measures the declining survival rate at the top: in office, leaders burn out; in opposition they are thrown out. Does this reduce the authority each incumbent can wield? F. Leslie Seidle examines innovations designed to improve citizen participation in government, exercises in 'deliberative democracy' that bring together ordinary people ─ but which ordinary people? ─ to review basic issues. Such devices may invigorate the political system, but they may also undermine the role of elected legislators, who are already marginalised. Gregory P. Marchildon advances a similar analysis of royal commissions ─ useful in exploring policy options, but they should not become a substitute either for the political responsibility to take decisions or the bureaucratic duty to provide on-going warning and advice. In 2000, the Canada Elections Act was amended to require polling organisations to publish methodological information explaining how they measured public opinion. The aim was to de-mystify the process, so that the average voter would no longer believe that boffins armed with pencils and slide-rule had pre-empted the verdict of millions of voters. Peter A. Ferguson agrees that the reform was needed, but concludes that it has not worked. George Perlin boldly points to a malaise in Canadian democracy and argues that it can only be countered by effective citizenship education in the schools. His contribution leads seamlessly to an essay by Stéphane Dion, of interest not merely for its good sense but because this former University of Montreal politics professor is now leader of the Liberal party. Dion thinks it is healthy to question institutions but he too stresses the need to stimulate the civic values that are needed to make any machine work ─ especially among young people, who fail to vote in large numbers and do not seem to be channelling their beliefs into alternative forms of political activity. In effect, Dion discerns a self-destructive paradox at the heart of our institutions. He supports the view of the American theorist, Samuel P. Huntington, that democracy is driven by an anti-establishment ethic. But when that inherent disrespect for authority transfers to the very people whom we ourselves elect, public trust in the institutions operated by those leaders will also be damaged. The foregoing essays stick close to the exploration of Courtney's own work. A final contribution, by Alan C. Cairns, offers a different form of tribute, with the author surveying his own work on the relationship between aboriginal people and the nation-state. Forever blocked from the 'natural' processes of decolonisation that have dismantled more far-flung empires, any accommodation of aboriginal demands for political self-expression within Canada will have unpredictable implications not only for its liberal-democratic institutions but, claims Cairns, for the world at large. The collection forms a worthy tribute to Courtney, and its predominantly interlocking discourse should stimulate parallel thinking among academics in other countries.