Politics in Canada is dominated by few political parties. The dominant parties are registered and noisy. “Independents, unregistered parties, and registered fringe parties” have been crowded out. Most people think that politics in Canada means “party politics” and “registered main stream party politics” at that.
Let’s look at the history of elections in Canada.
Canada has a “Westminster style” parliamentary democracy. This means that when Canadians vote they are electing a parliament. Each of Canada’s 308 (and counting) ridings have the right to elect a member to represent that riding in the House of Commons.
In the early days all MPs were Independents. Their duty was to the riding that elected them.
Sit down. Read the Constitution of Canada. Read the Charter of Rights. You will find references to elections and the right to vote. You will not find a single mention of a political party; “party politics” is a gross misconception.
The purpose of Parliament is (as you well know) to make laws. But, laws were the result of MPs voting on the merits of legislation. It was natural for those Independent MPs to seek alliances with other “like minded” MPs. Eventually these voting coalition received names. These names were things like “Conservative”, “Liberal”, etc. In 1970 the Canada Elections Act was amended so that:
Political parties (voting alliances) were formally recognized and;
The Political affiliation of a candidate could be shown on the ballot.
Forming and registering a federal political party are two different things. There is no requirement that a political party to register with Elections Canada. There is no legislation regulating the formation of federal political parties.
The Canada Elections Act defines a political party as:
“an organization one of whose fundamental purposes is to participate in public affairs by endorsing one or more of its members as candidates and supporting their election.”
Unregistered political parties are voting alliances that have not taken the step of registering with Elections Canada. They do not have any of the benefits that are given to registered political parties. Unregistered parties are voting coalitions that are NOT regulated by Elections Canada. Unregistered parties do not receive the same benefits from the taxpayers that registered parties have.
In 1974, the Canada Elections Act was amended to allow political parties to register with Elections Canada. Why would a political party do this?
Why deal with the Elections Canada bureaucracy?
Only registered political parties have a right to have their parties funded by the taxpayers of Canada. The taxpayers of Canada fund the Liberals, Conservatives, Bloc, NDP and Green Party (among others). You may know that the registered parties receive $1.95 for each vote that one of their candidates receives in an election.
This taxpayer subsidy is of vital importance to registered parties. In December of 2008 the Conservative Government of Stephen Harper introduced legislation which would have removed this subsidy from the registered parties. A coalition was formed which almost had the effect of bring the government down and installing a coalition government. Clearly the primary benefit to registering a political party is taxpayers’ money.
Registered political parties are voting coalitions that are a tax on the citizens of Canada. Furthermore, the primary registered parties require MPs to vote along party lines without regard to the interests of the riding.
Unlike the main stream registered political parties who have always been “voting coalitions”, independent candidates are neither members of voting coalitions, nor dependent on funds from the taxpayers of Canada.
Join The Independents Movement
There is no charge. We would ask that (assuming you believe in this principles) that you email this page to your friends and anyone else who you believe is tired of top down, autocratic, party rule.
We don’t think that Canadian taxpayers should be forced to contribute to political parties. Shouldn’t democracy be tax free?
