Advertisement

Alberta PC leadership frontrunner proposes term limits for MLAs, premier

Talk about a bold political announcement.

On Thursday — perhaps in a move to distance himself from the spending scandals of his predecessor — Alberta Progressive Conservative party leadership hopeful Jim Prentice introduced an Accountability Act.

At the heart of his plan is a scheme to cap the number of years a politician can hold office.

"There will be term limits," Prentice said.

"A limit of two terms for the Premier and three terms for MLAs."

While the United States has term limits for many of its offices — both at the state and federal level — Prentice claims that this would be the first legislation of its kind anywhere in Canada.

[ Related: Give voters power to recall MLAs like former Alberta Premier Alison Redford, watchdog says ]

Prentice isn't the first Canadian politico, however, to put forward this idea.

Former Conservative and Liberal MP Belinda Stronach wrote an op-ed for the Globe and Mail, in 2011, advocating two-term limits in Ottawa arguing that under our current electoral system an MP's focus is almost entirely on getting re-elected.

"The emphasis must be on public service where politics isn't seen as a career but rather as a tour of duty. Term limits could encourage this fundamental shift," Stronach wrote.

"Some might argue that party discipline will suffer with term limits in place, but is that such a bad thing? Term limits could create dynamic new conditions in the House of Commons where parliamentarians would feel freer to collaborate and make decisions based on what's good for the country."

But is there not value to incumbency and experience?

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation's Derek Filderbrandt had these clever arguments against term limits on Twitter.

Elsewhere on social media, others suggested that terms limits couldn't pass a Charter challenge. They note that that section 3 of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that every citizen has the right "to be qualified" to run for membership at the House of Commons or a provincial legislative assembly.

Regardless, Duff Conacher, co-founder of a democratic reform advocacy group called Democracy Watch, said that while term limits may sound great, there's other things Prentice could do to show that he's accountable.

"Terms limits are one of the least important changes to [bring about] democratic reform," he told Yahoo Canada News.

Instead, Conacher suggests that Prentice should ban corporate donations in Alberta, change the voting system (ie: implement some sort of proportional representation) and close loopholes to ensure cabinet ministers aren't making decisions that they can profit off of.

Those things, Conacher says, are a better way of getting rid of "bad politicians."

What do you think? Do you want to see terms limits in Canada?

Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Are you a politics junkie?
Follow @politicalpoints on Twitter!