Last week federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau told Canadians that anyone who is interested in running for the Liberal Party has to be pro-abortion. Those who are pro-life need not apply. He seemed to change his position ever so slightly this week, after days of intense public scrutiny, to say that Liberal candidates could be pro-life in their beliefs, but they could not vote that way in the House of Commons.
Much debate has happened between pro-life and pro-abortion factions over the past two weeks as a result of Mr. Trudeau’s decree. But what has not received enough attention about Mr. Trudeau’s edict is what it does to democracy more generally.
Already Canadians feel that their democratic institutions don’t work for them and there is a record level of dissatisfaction with both our governments and those who are elected to govern. Nothing Mr. Trudeau has done will make that any better.
In fact, regardless of which side of the abortion debate Canadians fall on, they should all be concerned by a leader of a political party who essentially says no debate on issues is allowed to take place at any level; be it at the local riding, within a political Caucus or within the House of Commons. A democracy is not well served when those who are interested in running for political office, or those who are already elected, are not allowed to speak about matters of personal conscious or that are important to the majority of their constituents. That is exactly the thing that causes Canadians to think that they have no voice in the democratic system.
And it is precisely the type of behavior that causes elected officials themselves to become disenchanted with the political process. In their recent book, Tragedy in the Commons, authors Alison Loat and Michael MacMillian interview 80 former MPs and find that, overwhelmingly, parliamentarians struggle with the ability to have their own views or the views of their constituents heard. Edicts such as the one Mr. Trudeau levied last week do nothing to make our democratic system better, in fact it only serves to weaken it further.
Not only does Mr. Trudeau’s directive that all his candidates must think and act as he does hurt democracy generally, it ultimately hurts Mr. Trudeau and his desire to be a leader that people are willing to follow. The mark of a good leader isn’t the ability to wield power through orders and commands. Any leader can do that by virtue of the position they have been given. A true leader strives to convince those they lead of the wisdom of their position, not through power, but through persuasion.
If that is the test of leadership than in this case Mr. Trudeau has failed. And our democracy is weaker for it.
