PR tactics

When Scott asked a couple of days ago whether there was any chance of proportional representation being the NDP's price for cooperation with the Cons, my response was that any process to get to PR would likely last longer than the NDP would be able to stand propping up Harper. Today, the Cons seem to have put forward a shorter process to evaluate PR and other democratic reforms - but also shown signs of rigging it against PR as an outcome.

The (relatively) good news is a tender for a consultation process which would ask for Canadians' input into their electoral system:

Canadians will be given a chance this spring to weigh in on the latest floor-crossing MP or any other matter relating to the country's democratic peculiarities.

No, a federal election has not yet been called.

The Conservative government indicated Tuesday it wants to begin public consultations by March 9 on "the challenges facing Canada's electoral system and democratic institutions" and have a draft report completed before the end of May.

Which is well and good as a starting point. And indeed, it could potentially make for fairly fertile ground for cooperation between the NDP and the Cons: if Harper publicly agreed to implement the result of a fair consultation in favour of PR, that might well make it worth the NDP's while to ensure the government lasted through the spring session as long as the Cons' budget wasn't too toxic.

But then, there are the terms of reference for the project - which appear to clearly signal the Cons' determination to push against any PR system:

The tender calls for a private think-tank to join forces with a polling firm to canvass a cross-section of Canadians on five specific topics:
-"political parties (e.g., their role in policy development);"
-"the electoral system (e.g., particular characteristics that are important for citizens, such as the link between elected representatives and a particular geographical area);"
-"the House of Commons (e.g., decorum);"
-"the Senate (e.g., the role it should play and the powers it should possess); and"
-"the role of the citizen (e.g., civic engagement)"

While the survey is supposed to be "open-ended", it surely can't speak well to Cons' openness to PR that the lone piece of editorializing within the terms of reference is to judge as "important" a connection between geography and representation. And anybody bidding for the contract will presumably be able to pick up on that signal, meaning that even MMP-style proposals will likely be DOA.

Of course, there's always the possibility that the Cons are seeking to bury the report and be done with it. And in that respect, it's worth noting that the Cons apparently include Canadians as a whole in the class of adviser whose advice they won't commit to making public:

Federal officials did not respond to questions about whether the report will be made public.

Now, it's not beyond possibility that Layton could seize on the current outline and push Harper in the right direction - both by making sure that the results are made public, and by pushing for party representation to at least be put on equal footing with geographic representation in the terms of reference. But for now, the plan looks to be aimed solely at glossing over the Cons' past commitments to democratic reform with as little change as possible to the system which put them in power. Which could result in both a waste of money, and a missed opportunity for real democratic improvement.

(Edit: fixed link.)