The article may plant thoughts into the minds of reader, such as; “Are we getting the best possible form of governance as a country, and in our own regions?” or “Is there any alternative to the Ontario Liberals?” While propositioning the reader with many questions such as these, the columnists R. Kenneth Carty, William Cross, and Lisa Young offer no real answers. They briefly state, however, that reform creating “better internal party democracy” (pg 33) and a “proportional government” (pg 37) may both be adequate solutions.
The columnists show to readers the emergence of the Canadian Alliance and of the Bloc, and their impact on the Canadian political arena. And how the five party dynamic of the federal system is further becoming regionalized because of the choices available. These choices, however, are the result of public demand in secularized regions of Canada. For example, the Bloc resides in Quebec, the Canadian Alliance in the West, the New Democratic Party is faltering but mostly in Central Canada, Conservatives are at home in Atlantic Canada, and the Liberals (while offering a full slate of candidates across the country) dominate Ontario. This regionalization has also brought upon a incredibly diversified political arena, where one party will be telling Westerners one story and Ontario constituents another. Parties have new access to communicating with the constituents in a National campaign via the technological advances offering Network TV, direct mail, telephone, faxes and the Internet. These new technologies make delivering a message to individual constituents possible.
Overall the article was informative and interesting. A few consequences of the election (new parties, regional views, and diversification of parties) I had witnessed first hand, a few others (party democracy and a fragmented electorate) I had only come to realize while reading this article. This was a view of the federal political arena under scrutiny after the collapse of the national party system.
