My province, Ontario, recently introduced a fixed election at four year intervals. This October will be the first one. I'm against this, because I think it leads to the sort of interminable campaigns that happen in the US and France (the nomination campaigns in the US sometimes start a full two years before the election!). So far, I've only seen a little bit of campaigning in Ontario, but I still expect it to be longer than the usual two months or so. On the other hand, government-chosen election dates are said to favour the party in power, and I can see that point too. My proposal, though I don't ever expect it to happen, is to have a random sample of the population (like a jury) decide the election date, to occur some time between the fourth and fifth year of the government. What do you all think about fixed elections and/or my proposal?
Uriel
I'm used to fixed election dates, so they don't bother me in the least. I think having someone or some party having the the power to spring elections on you or conversely, to withhold them, smacks of the election equivalent of gerrymandering -- i.e., they can time the elections to coincide with whatever surge in opinion is going their way.
As for "interminable campaigns", well, politicians are ALWAYS jockeying for position, and no one pays them much attention until after the primaries anyway.
Loic
It should be the privilege of the ruling party to call for an election as and when they please. This is how the Westminister parliamentary system works anyway and I have no complaints with it.
greg in noord-frankrijk
Re: Fixed election dates
Josh Lalonde wrote:
My province, Ontario, recently introduced a fixed election at four year intervals. This October will be the first one. I'm against this, because I think it leads to the sort of interminable campaigns that happen in the US and France (the nomination campaigns in the US sometimes start a full two years before the election!).
I'm totally for fixed dates. Yep the precampaign, the campaign & the postcampaign can be boring. Especially when two nullissime candidates are competing. However, it's a good thing that les locataires de l'Élysée ou de la Maison blanche do know exactly when they're going to be seen off. For instance I couldn't imagine one second that I may not know about the very date Sarkozy is going to be kicked off the Élysée. That the expiry date could be of his own choosing is just a nightmare to me : I would riot against tyranny !
That said, I'm not against modifying a fixed date provided there's an obvious justification and a large consensus across the political spectrum.
