The Path to Restoring a Minority Government

Now is the time to legally challenge the recent secret agreements that lured elected members of Parliament to abandon their loyalty to their political party, their leader and to their voters who trusted them with their conscience and vote, by “crossing the floor” to join a governing political party, whose ambition was to transform its status from a compromising minority to a powerful majority government that gets its own way without the need to compromise.

Integrity, morality, accountability and constitutional law require an immediate resignation to vacate their seat, and the calling of a by-election for those who “crossed the floor.” They must not be allowed to continue in their role as a Member of Parliament (MP) without a fresh electoral mandate from their constituents.

When voters make their decision, they are limited by law to casting one vote to determine three outcomes: who will be the next Prime Minister, which political party will govern, and to affirm the individual candidate, who is not running as an independent, by as the elected nominee of the local constituency of the political party, who has voluntarily contracted to support the leader of their party, their party and its political platform of policies, beliefs, and values, and publicly declared these associations to gain favor and trust with the votes.

I contend that each vote is a vote for a “package” and not for an individual independent candidate. Once elected, these candidates are not free to associate with another political party, regardless of promises of power or money, especially when the governing party benefits by circumventing the need for a general election, by using “back room deals” in order to form a majority government.

Who can sue? The Conservative Party, the riding associations whose candidates defected, and voters in each constituency, have standing to launch their own actions. There might be arguments based upon breach of contract, violations of fiduciary duties, fraud, and infiltration by stealth candidates. But the strongest arguments will be based upon the written and unwritten Constitution of Canada.

The right to vote under s. 3 of the Charter includes the right to effective representation. The integrity of the electoral process and the government is at stake. Citizens have a legitimate expectation of fairness and trust in exercising their vote. Betrayal of this reliance turns their participation in the democratic electoral process into a hollow and empty one that is incompatible with a free and democratic society. The whole of the electoral process may be brought into disrepute if a court were to find that use of backroom deals to influence elected members into crossing the floor to gain a majority government is a corrupt or illegal practice that strikes at the heart of a free and democratic society.

The lack of a prior legal precedent on point illustrates the need to establish one. It is long overdue to revisit historical doctrines like parliamentary privilege, when there is conflict with Canada’s Constitution. The ultimate question is whether Canadians are serious enough to sacrifice their resources to fight for their constitutional rights, and whether there is enough legal talent who can think outside of the box and who have the courage to fight for democracy and the rule of law.

What about legislation that will soon be passed that includes the votes of those who “crossed the floor?” If a court rules that an MP is disqualified from sitting and illegally kept their seat in government, a consequence might be that their vote was illegitimate, and new legislation that is passed might not be legal. The time for legal action is now.