In our wildest dreams...

Four Strong Winds has recently issued a challenge to other Alberta politics bloggers to declare their opinions regarding the state of Alberta's democracy. It should come as no surprise that we at AGRDT have been known to refer to this province as a post-democratic state. Indeed, we have long lamented the current state of democracy in Alberta and as such we have several recommendations to help foster a vibrant, inclusive democratic process that all Albertans can get behind.

1. Electoral reform: I think the most fundamental means to reform Alberta's democracy is to make the number of seats alloted to one party more closely proportional to their share of the popular vote. A post I wrote a couple of weeks ago included graphs that show the seat distribution under our current first-past-the-post system, and the projected seat distribution had we used one system of proportional representation. The graphs illustrate the marked divide between seat distribution and popular vote. For example, in the 2004 election 46% of eligible voters cast ballots for the PCs, which resulted in that party taking 73% of  seats in the legislative assembly. Meanwhile, the Alberta Alliance Party received almost 9% of the popular vote and 1% of the LA's seats. We have already outlined some of the benefits of and concerns with MMP and STV (two systems of PR) in another post, so I will not include a detailed discussion here. However, I do think it is important to mention that any change in our electoral system must be decided via a Citizen's Assembly and then a referendum on the matter.
2. FOIP (aka F**k Off It's Private) legislation: I think another important means to improve Alberta's democratic process is to have the Legislative Assembly repeal Bill 20. It's truly ridiculous that internal government audits and cabinet briefings are protected for 15 years and 5 years, respectively. Albertans have a right to know what is going on with their government, and whether taxpayer funds are being spent appropriately and efficiently. Moreover, it shouldn't take 6 months and $900 to get documents obtainable at the federal level in 2 weeks for a whopping $12 (photocopying fees).
3. Abolish the Public Affairs Bureau: Turf the Premier's Office-controlled, Soviet-style information centralization spin machine and have the individual ministries and departments be responsible for their own press releases and media interactions.
4. Malapportionment of electoral boundaries: Pierre Trudeau is my Homeboy has a good breakdown of this issue in his response to Four Strong Winds. Suffice to say, there is an obvious problem when 1/3 of Alberta's population holds 1/2 of the seats in the Legislative assembly -- particularly when this is a result of manipulation of the ruling party that counts on bedrock rural support for its continued dominance. The CBC's Kim Trynacity points out that the electoral boundaries will have to be redrawn after this election, as mandated by provincial law. It will be interesting to see if Stelmach tries to pull a Klein and use an all-party legislative committee (and accept the recommendations of said committee even if all of its opposition members quit in protest, as Klein did) to redraw Alberta's electoral boundaries, as opposed to an independent electoral boundary commission as is used at the federal level.
5. Civil society: The Alberta government should increase grants to community-based organizations for both service provision and advocacy. Civil society groups not only provide needed services to the public at large, but also serve as an alternative means for citizen representation. That is, Albertans who feel they are not adequately represented via political institutions may find their voice in civil institutions instead. The Alberta government should foster this form of democratic dialogue (which should be a natural outcome of Stelmach's assertions of the importance of public consultations on important issues).  Civil society groups provide the necessary means to represent segments of the public, thus it is time to give them the tools needed to fulfill this important responsibility.
6. Electoral finance laws: In previous years, there has been a trend towards citizen disengagement in political parties. As a result, political parties are relying more and more heavily on corporate and union donations. This presents a conflict of interest for politicians who are mandated to represent their regional districts, while feeling indebted to their big campaign contributors. A solution to this problem is to ban corporate and union donations and implement a system of electoral financing similar to that at the federal level (where parties receive funding based on their share of the popular vote).  For a good discussion of the inadequacy of current campaign finance laws, see PTHB's post.
7. Accountability for Stelmach's buds: Finally, a good place to start for improving democracy in this province is to make Stelmach's accountability legislation apply to this year's exodus of Tory insiders. As mentioned in one of our earlier posts: traditionally, the PCs and other political parties see an outflow of politicians and bureaucrats after each election. However, due to an order in council sneakily passed by Stelmach and Co. the day before the election, the Conflict of Interests Amendment Act will only apply to those Tory insiders leaving office a month after the election (thus ensuring Stelmach's buds don't have to follow the new rules). This is a shrewd move on the part of the Premier and one that didn't get nearly enough attention in the media. If we want to promote democracy in this province, making accountability rules apply to the Premier's closest associates would be a good place to start.

And there you have it, a democracy wish list from your Alberta: Get Rich or Die Trying Team. Kudos to Four Strong Winds for stimulating this discussion.

Comments

[Abdul-Rahim]

Excellent post, the issues you outline seem a comprehensive list of things that could be done to indeed change Albertan society for the better. Is electoral reform a big issue in Alberta or are all of these concerns largely marginal?

[eh]

I'd say electoral reform is mainly an issue for people unhappy with the current regime. Unfortunately, the PC government has no interest in reforming a system from which they benefit disproportionately. The opposition parties, however, do have democratic renewal planks in their platforms.