Okay, I was holding off the inevitable discussion about abolishing the monarchy, out of respect for the most popular monarch of the past century. However, the news media have jumped the gun by a couple of days, so I don’t feel too bad about raising the topic, especially since I’m not attacking the system in any serious way.
Sooner or Later — Much Later
The world right now is in a huge battle between democratic forms of government and the various totalitarian regimes that still remain from the colonial age. It’s rather hypocritical of us to be clinging to the vestiges of one of those empires. Oh, sure, it’s a “constitutional monarchy” — an oxymoron if I ever heard one — but it’s a rather benign version.
However, at the most basic level, democracy is based on the principal that everyone is equal, and a monarchy assumes that everyone is not. Sooner or later, in order to bolster democracy in the world, the monarchy has to go. However, it can be later, as far as I’m concerned. In Canada, for example, there are a couple of far more important moves that must first be made to increase the average citizen’s political clout.
First Priority: Fix the Voting System
One of the main problems suffered by the present democratic system is that it isn’t very democratic. Right now, Canada is run by a political party that has the support of less than 17% of the population. That’s right. When you total up the people who can’t vote, didn’t vote, or voted for someone else, the Liberals only have 6 million votes in a country with a population of 37 million. You do the math.
Not to feel bad about this. After their latest general elections, Great Britain’s rulers won by 22% and the American president won with 24 %. The President of France got a whopping 28%, but that was in the second vote of a runoff system that might be termed first-past-the-second-post.
Why?
There are two reasons for this situation. One, the first-past-the-post system creates false majorities. Even using normal voting statistics, the Liberals have a majority of the seats in Parliament with only 33% of the popular vote.
The second problem is a psychological result of this. Since many people realize their vote probably won’t count, they simply don’t vote. 40% in Canada’s 2019 election. Proportional representation elections have up to 90% of votes counting towards an elected representative. No wonder they average about 10% higher voter turnout. Add this 10% to the fact that pro-rep systems require 50% of voter support for the party that rules — an increase of 17% in Canada’s case — and you’ve just made your government almost 30% more democratic. Not bad, and we didn’t have to truncate any despots to achieve it.
Next: Fix the Senate
The original Senate in Ancient Rome only represented male landowners, but at least the members were elected. Our Senate is a bastardized version developed in Britain to give the aristocracy the final say on laws created by the elected representatives of the people. In Canada, members are appointed by the ruling political party. The ones supported by 17% of the voters, remember?
I’m in favour of loading the Senate from specific regions and groups. But it MUST be elected. Give the voters another reason to get out and vote. Practice makes perfect.
Get Rid of the Monarchy?
Yeah, sure. We’ll get around to that one day if we need to. But it’s a highly divisive topic, and we don’t need that sort of hassle dividing us. In my book, anyone attacking the Monarchy right now is a political opportunist of the worst sort.
Can the Monarchy be Replaced?
Actually, yes. Many of the benefits usually touted for the monarchy — ties with other like-minded countries, for example — would be equally provided by the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth is far more important than the monarchy. It is a long-standing organization of countries with mutual trust and respect, led by two G-7 countries. A powerful trading and political bloc.
In case nobody in the developed world noticed, the commonwealth is also a vestige of the Empire. Developing countries are denying themselves the benefits of the trade organization because of its echoes of the monarchy. If those smaller countries did not have to associate the Commonwealth with their colonial injustices, they would stay.
The Bottom Line
Canada’s present democratic system was developed out of a totalitarian system, and we must get rid of the inequities that still remain. Once we have done that, the basic need for a monarch will probably disappear as well. A problem for another day.