Sept 12 (week 2)

Canadian - More than the simple, pure democracy

Democracy - Values or principles inform the basic commitment to the democracy and limit majority rule
- Roles of courts provide tempering, highlight some values (checks and balances)
- Aristotle +
- What are the specific regime principles or values that give meaning to the common good?
- Canada’s regime principles
- Reconciliation?
- Equality
- Liberty
- Popular Rule
- Popular sovereignty: people have ultimate authority
- Different ways go practicing popular rule (US has frequent elections, Canada
only every 4 years)
- Direct Democracy (impractical; targeting of minority interest; funding abuse)
- Referendum
- Direct vote of the masses, that decides a question (binding)
- (1992 constitution change // quebec separation)
- Plebiscite
- Opinion vote of the masses, that provides input for a question
- Doesn’t need to be followed by government
- Initiative
- Question coming from the people
- Recall
- Interaction with decision making for a topic; direct vote of the
masses with the ability to remove elected officials from office
Sept 14
Popular Rule - Reasons for rep gov
(rep gov) - electoral accountability
- Indirect
- Primary expression in Canada
- Exists due to the impracticalities and intemperance of direct democracy
- Parliamentary Democracy
- Form of rep gov chosen in Canada
- “Constitution similar in principle to that of the UK”
- Theme of Canada’s constitution
- Rep body is the Parliament
- Indirect election of the executives
- Parliament execs chosen by gov itself, general party is voted in by the people
- People vote for the rep within their own constituency, not the federal members
- Accountability filtered through reps
- Interesting that Canada chose to continue this type of ruling in 1867 (was after the US
revolution // changing times)
- Likely due to “pressure release valve” // if u didnt like the system, there wass
availability to move to the US
- ‘Most indirect of indirect systems’
- Leaves a role for the Crown (safety net) // Crown has symbolic & organizational
influence (change in how we execute power)
- Every rep gov is indirect, but here there is specifically no choice in choosing your
own national-level rep

Equality - Political equality

- Doesn't mean social or economic equality
- Does mean a relatively equal role in political rule
- Opportunities for people to get elected into office are far less for people of lower
 socioeconomic due to systematic failures and biases
- Threats to political equality
- Economic or social inequality (role of money in politics)
- Much easier for wealthy people to run and get elected for government due to
availability and opportunity
- Try to prevent political equality from being threatened
- Restrictions on donations and spending limits on how much parties and electives are
able to spend during elections
- Equality
- Rough equality of voice in legislature by population
- Parliament of Canada is supposed to be a direct representation of the population of
Canada
- Imperfect systems (provinces)
- Reduce influence of inequality in public choices
- Approx about 1 elective is representing 100,000 citizens
- PEI is, and always has been, overrepresented (4 reps for the tiny pop // their
votes technically have more worth than other citizens)
- Urban riding underrepresented compared to rural ridings due to denser pop.
- Counterpoint is that it is not ebay to rep the rural pop due to how spread
out it is, interaction with people easier in denser areas
- Campaign spending rules
- Bottom line
- Regime is supposed to belong equally to all citizens
- Equality of citizenship
- Equal right to run for office (in theory, barring monetary or time availability
differences)
- The government’s accountability is to all Canadians
- “Unpolitical” equality
 - Can be promoted through rights instruments (constitutions, human rights act…)
- Laws apply equally (rule of law)
- Positive equality (make decisions to help protect minorities)

Sept 16
Liberty - Liberal constitutionalism
- Freedom
- Private Space
- Freedom of Choice within bounds of the law
- Liberal democracy
- Liberty a tool to temper or mitigate excesses of democracy
- Place for law
- Liberty rules can be challenged in courts; constant development
- Small “L” liberalism
- All individuals have a “private sphere” where they are free to make choices for
themselves
- 2 arguments/justifications/notions of liberty:
- Natural Rights or Natural Law (Natural state of freedom to be preserved)
- “Human” rights
- Inalienable rights
- Fundamental freedoms; cannot be given up or taken away by the state
- Inherent & Universal
- Utilitarianism (Way to ensure happiness in the pursuit of interests and beliefs)
- Justification for its usefulness
- What keeps people happy
- “Utility principle”
- Greatest happiness of the greatest number
 - Full dev of individuality, as long as no harm done (John Stuart Mills)
- “Harm principle”
- Onus on the gov to prove necessity of limits
- Private sphere
- “There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation” (Pierre Turdeau)
- Trudeau the embodiment of moving towards natural law in Canada
- Canada
- Parliamentary protections of rights (utilitarian)
- Courts have the ability to limit rights
- Written constitutional protections (natural law)
- Balanced: utilitarian in law, natural in spirit

Reconciliation - Colonial contest in Canada

(uncharted - All to action by TRC
territory) - Regime challenge; legitimacy called into question
- Incompletely conceived and realized
- Fundamental challenges to other principles
- 1982
- Charter s.35
- Indigenous rights/treaty rights
- UNDRIP
- United nations declaration of rights of indigenous peoples
- Document with 46 articles
- Bill 41 commits BC to “take all measures necessary to ensure the laws of BC are
consistent with the Declaration”
- Article 19 obtain “free, prior and informed consent”
- Problems with this due to prior gov projects that are still active

Sept 21 (week 3)