As the events in Ottawa have unfolded over the last week, I've been thinking about how to approach the subject on this blog. I've been reading a lot of comments on news articles that essentially say "How can this happen? It's not fair for the losing parties to form a coalition! It's not democratic!"
My response to that is an analogy.
Five people are on a road trip, let's say, from Edmonton to Calgary. The car is approaching Red Deer, and it's lunch time, so discussion about where to eat results. The driver and the passenger in the front seat declare that everyone is going to eat at McDonald's. There is a chorus of complaints from the back - one person wants to eat at Wendy's, another at Tim Horton's, and the last person in the car states "I don't care where we eat, as long as it's NOT McDonald's."
I'm sure many people have been in this exact situation. So how does it usually turn out? Well, two of the people in the back seat realize that they can both get what they want. It so happens that there is a Wendy's and a Tim Horton's that are connected in Red Deer, and the third person in the back agrees that this option is much better than McDonald's. It's now a vote of 3 to 2 for Wendy's/Tim Horton's. Sounds pretty democratic to me.
Of course, if we apply the analogy to Canadian politics, it seems more than likely that the driver is going to pull over, get out of the car and refuse to continue unless he gets what he wants.
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