U.S. debt ceiling impasse exposes benefits of Canada’s parliamentary system

While observing the debt-ceiling impasse in the United States, one can't help but think that compared to the U.S., Canada's system of government is actually pretty good.

In the United States, the House of Representatives and the Senate are in a showdown as their leaders offer competing plans to resolve the crisis.

Republicans, who control of the House of Representatives, strongly oppose tax increases. Democrats who control the Senate dislike proposed cuts to popular social programs and want some tax increases in addition to spending cuts.

The political stalemate between them threatens to plunge the U.S. into an economic free fall.

Could we see the same type of political stalemate in this country if the Harper government moves forward with an elected senate?

Liberal Senator Grant Mitchell believes it could happen in Canada.

"Because the Senate has to approve all legislation and budgets before they come into law, an elected Senate, freed from the constraint of not wanting to overturn the work of the elected House of Commons, could completely hamstring government," he wrote in an August 2010 blog.

In a speech in the Senate in November, Miller added, "If you want to see what happens when you cannot break impasses, go to the United States, where you will see a system of government that is all but dysfunctional."

John Pepall, author of "No Reform" and an opponent of an elected senate in Canada, penned a column in the National Post Thursday noting another benefit of our system of government is that it forces politicians to take responsibility and holds them accountable.

"Under parliamentary government, a prime minister must take responsibility for a budget. If it is passed he will have to answer to the voters for it," he wrote.

"What is going on in Washington is a multi-sided game of chicken in which everyone is trying to avoid responsibility for either the spending cuts or the tax hikes that will have to come.

"Some Democrats and some Republicans will have to agree to things most Democrats and most Republicans don't like. Obama will be able to say that he was forced by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to do whatever his supporters don't like."

For all the negative refrain and the constant rumbling about reform, Canada's system of governance does have its positive features.

(Reuters Photo)