Should municipal elections have party politics?

[JGHali]

Prescribing party politics as the solution for the likes of Rob Ford is the sledgehammer-to-wall approach. A simple recall and/or impeachment process would make a hell of a lot more sense, and would still probably be necessary even in a party system.

In any case, given the anti-democratic domination by the executive of Parliament and, to a lesser extent, provincial legislatures, I fail to see why it would be helpful. Sure, the current system overly favours incumbency. Party systems favour the concentration of power - and that's a lot worse when you have a horrible, incompetent person in charge without any formal means to get rid of them.

 

[King of Kensington]

Should we abolish parties in Ottawa and have 338 independents?

 

[Videodrome]

In Nebraska, unlike all other states, they have a unicameral legislature that is non-partisan. Most of them are Republicans, but party affiliation doesn't matter.

 

[nfitz]

In Nebraska, unlike all other states, they have a unicameral legislature that is non-partisan.

I guess that's a good case for keeping our system the way it is!

 

[Admiral Beez]

@typezed. Under a system of party politics, candidates like Domise would have had a real shot based on the party brand.

He didn't even come second.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Should we abolish parties in Ottawa and have 338 independents?

Unless we are able to vote directly for the PM, then we must have party politics in Ottawa. Municipal politics is the only time we get to vote directly for our leader. I'd like to keep that.

 

[rbt]

He didn't even come second.

Exactly. He probably wouldn't even have been running as the party would have given the opportunity to someone else.

 

[King of Kensington]

Or maybe Domise was just about the most overrated candidate in 2014.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Well, the Fords were the most overrated candidates in 2014 (all three of them). That is, by the people who rate them so frikkin' highly.

 

[King of Kensington]

Though oddly Mike Ford sounds like an improvement over the guy he beat.

 

[adma]

And as such, maybe Domise is the perfect counterpoint for all those IHTWOMRF "Ford candidates" (Smitherman, Bell, et al) who flopped utterly at the ballot box. (Though interesting--though admittedly, I haven't really checked--that such realms haven't engaged in "nyah nyah, Andray Domise blew it" raspberries. Perhaps because they're too caught up in their own dunderheaded ego.)

 

[King of Kensington]

They're too busy whining about "John Liberal" and the media conspiracy.

I just find the argument that "the party" would prevent great candidates like Domise from emerging to be a bizarre one.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Or maybe Domise was just about the most overrated candidate in 2014.

By outsider perhaps. I don't think the media ever asked the locals if Domise was their top one or two pick.