This another interesting topic that was discussed in my tutorial but I didn't truly understand it at the time. But I did a bit more reading on it and now I have a stance on it.
Again like my PM being too powerful I shall keep it relatively short and just discuss the main point/points to highlight the stronger arguments. My take on this is that: No, representation in Parliament should not Mirror Canada' Social Diversity.
First off I'd like to say that doing so would increase social fragmentation and group identification, as a canadian, I think that no matter where you are from or what background you have you are still canadian and anyone who is qualified enough should be able to represent us even if they do not share the same experiences. If we did follow representation by social diversity that would cause mass segragation among us.
Secondly if we did have social diversity representation then this would creat first and second class MPs because identity based representation is condescending. We want the best represenation possible not people who think they can represent us just because they share some of our traits.
Lastly, it is faulty to assume that having a diverse parliament would ensure that all minor issues would be solved. The Parliament is a place where large scale issues that affect the country as whole are discussed and dealt with.
Do you think that the diversity of Canada can be adequately representated if their needs and itnerests are not advanced by those who share their gender, Aboriginal status, ethnicity, race or disability?
What do you think?
-SW
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I think it would be great if the diversity of the Canadian population was able to be represented in Parliament. The problem is, i don not know of a system which i believe will do so effectively. Most commonly, Proportional Representation is suggested. This system is too complicated. How are the disadvantaged groups chosen? Some groups may be insulted if another ethnic group is chosen over them. Everyone wants a fair chance to be represented. There would also be issues with determining who belongs to what group. How do you categorize people? Further, because there are so many parties, the public may not know all of their platforms, and therefore be forced to vote blindly or not vote at all. This system would also lead to the use of closed lists (and i don't think that this is a good thing). In this way the public is not able to choose a specific candidate who is representing them. I also do not think that it may be assumed that a candidate represents all of the people who fall into the same categorization as them. For example, Aboriginal peoples are not autonomous. What tribe would candidates come from?
All in all i think that there are too many problems with Proportional Representation, and though Canada should embrace its social diversity, this is not the way to go about it.
All in all, it would get ridiculously complicated if we had to represent EVERYONE through social diversity, meaning getting enough people into parliament regardless of how well they would represent. And like you said it would get messy for say those who have a mixed background. Say for example a mix between a dominant race and a minority. What would they be classified under? Or how would they be represented? Do we find someone who is like them? This is just one of the possible foreseeable problems in addition to selection process...
-SW
Great question!
I agree, I don’t think we should be so strict so as to impose regulations on representation in Parliament, because then we might have someone who is not necessarily the best candidate, but was selected because he or she was of a certain ethnic origin. That does not seem right.
I think Canada is sufficiently diverse that no matter what we do there will always be many different nationalities represented in Parliament.
At the same time however, it might not be necessary to have someone from our ethnic origin to represent us, but we must ensure that someone is representing our interests, and not only that, but someone who truly understands them.
All of this being said, I am curious to see how it would work if the Parliament did experiment with this idea. I am not completely opposed, and I think there is a chance that it could work, but it would have to be tried. It may be somewhat of tedious task though. With the amount of immigration into this country the diversity is constantly changing, and government would have to come up with a way to deal with this.
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