Several years ago, a friend — frustrated from years of political failure — warned me that Atlantic Canadian politics were still basically stuck in the feudal era. A lot’s changed since then, including a remarkable outpouring of creative expression and a growing dissatisfaction with the powers that be… but there are still some mighty reactionary forces at work.
Case in point: as noted by Declan at Crawl Across the Ocean, the provincial government in Prince Edward Island is up to some pretty shameless political manipulation.
Specifically, they’re trying to rig the province’s electoral boundaries. After one pass by an independent judge, and a “highly unusual” second draft by Elections PEI, the Conservative majority passed a much different map drafted on behalf of the Conservative Party… one that has Charlottetown City Council and a number of other notables seeing red. (And not just in the soil.)
Maybe the local Conservative brain trust has fallen under the influence of their ideological counterparts in some tinpot dictatorship where the elections are rigged and the word democracy is just the punchline to a cruel joke – possibly Texas. Or maybe a rogue focus group has convinced the Binns government that Japanese tourists are as fascinated by gerrymandering as they are by Anne of Green Gables.
Or maybe they see the principles of democracy as unattainable ideals, to be applauded in public but – safely behind closed doors, in the company of their fellow politicians, staff and advisers – dismissed as hopelessly naive at best and subversive at worst. That cynical philosophy leads to the kind of self-justifying incumbent protection program that helps drive citizen engagement and voter interest to dangerously low levels. If there’s any justice in politics, this maneuver ought to be a career-ending move by Binns and company.
A final note: Declan points out that a crass political power play like this one is a lot less likely under proportional representation; district boundaries have tremendous influence over the results of first-past-the-post elections here and in the U.S. Then again, they have a similar impact under the kind of single-transferable-vote system that British Columbians will be deciding on in 2008.
