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Why aren't there parties in city politics?
Submitted by Jeremy McNaughton on August 25, 2007 - 11:49pm.
This is something I've wondered for a long time. It makes sense to me that a party would stand a better chance at getting a majority on council. And having a party would mean democratically chosen policies.
But instead we're stuck with individuals who are not committed to some sort of a plan for the city.
Are municipal parties illegal? Or are they a bad idea for reasons I don't understand?
Jeremy
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It has to do with our electoral system
It's my understanding that only municipalities in countries with proportional, integrated (PI) electoral systems have municipal parties. Canada has a majoritarian (first-past-the-post), discontinuous (MD) electoral system with discontinuity between local and national levels of politics. For example, people who belong to the Ontario provincial Liberals are not required to be members of the federal Liberal party, and the federal parties almost never coordinate their policies with their related provincial parties.
The Scandinavian countries use PI systems where parliaments and other representative bodies (city council) are elected proportionally from multi-member districts (MMDs), and integrated relationships exist between local and national parites. In countries with PI systems, different levels of government collaborate on everything from program coordination to appointments on school boards. This enables voters to have a clear picture of the political map and has led to higher voter turnout in the aforementioned countries. Hence the need to vote for MMP in the upcoming provincial election! If Ontario and other provinces adopt proportional electoral systems, then the feds may be forced to implement PR at the national level. Only then will we see the emergence (on any broad scale, anyway) of municipal parties.
Hope that answers your question.
I know in the U.S, many
I know in the U.S, many County and municipal seats are vied for by people running on Democrat, Republican or, in some areas, third party tickets. The NYC City Council for example, currently breaks down as 47 Democrat, 3 Republican and 1 Working Family Party counsellors.
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poor peoples party
"Working Family Party"?
that sounds awesome!
-r.
Still don't see municipal parties flourishing here...
You're right. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only offices/seats the American Green Party holds are municipal ones (and some state legislatures). But I suspect that, sadly, the need to identify with political parties at the municipal level in the States has more to do with politicians conforming to that country's rigid two-party system than providing voters with any real type of choice (in other words, it's probably damn hard to get elected - even at the city level - unless you identify with either the Democrats or the Republicans).
In Canada, I think most of us will agree that city politicians actually prefer to convey the faux notion that they do not necessarily identify with any particular political party (which is usually horseshit, of course). That is why I don't envision municipal parties flourishing here until we adopt a proportional, integrated electoral system.
I've found some info....
I've found some information on Wikipedia.
In the 1970's an 80's a Metro New Democratic Party attempted to run in Toronto. However, there's no mechanism for political parties to register on the municipal level so it was basically an informal group of some NDP councillors the used the party's colours. Since it wasn't official, no party name appeared on the ballots and the Metro NDP couldn't accept campaign donations. I think this pretty much sums up the situation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_New_Democratic_Party
There's a page with a list of municipal political parties in canada:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Municipal_political_parties_in_Can...
There's also an article in the National Post (November 18, 2006):
Province urged to allow municipal political parties
Would eliminate 'covert party politics,' advocates suggest
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/toronto/story.html?id=b45be47b-3...
P.S. How can I add hyperlinked text in the comment?
Vancouver has them
Vancouver has municipal parties. There's the Non Partisan Association and the Coalition of Progressive Electors.
About hyperlinks.. to make them you select the text you want to make into a link, then click the "Insert/edit link" button. It's on the 2nd toolbar, near the centre and it looks like chain links. It'll come up with a dialog that you can put the URL in.
Jeremy
I've heard of the Vancouver parties...
However, unless each province is allowed to set their own laws regarding this, I think it's probably the same deal as the Metro NDP.
Is this the case just here
Is this the case just here in London, or in cities across Canada? I've wondered about this before, I'll do some research but right now my attention span demands that I go for a short walk.
Wikipedia has a long, detailed article about London and probably lots of information about the workings of city hall. It's one of the sources I will look at.