Geek stuff – Page 26 – a sibilant intake of breath

1968: Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal Party wins 154 seats in the House of Commons, on the basis of 45.37% of the vote. The Progressive Conservatives form the official opposition with 72 seats, based on 31.36% of the popular vote.

1976: René Lévesque’s Parti Québécois wins a majority of 71 seats in the Quebec legislature, on the basis of 41.37% of the vote. The opposition Liberals get 26 seats, based on 33.78% of the popular vote.

2011: Stephen Harper’s Conservatives win a majority government of 166 seats, based on 39.62% of the vote. The opposition New Democrats win 103 seats with 30.63% of the vote (partly because the Liberals collapsed from 77 seats to 34, on the basis of a 7.36% drop in their share of the popular vote).

Governing from the Centre: The Concentration of Power in Canadian Politics

Donald Savoie’s 1999 book is the single-best account I have read of the functioning of Canada’s federal government. It focuses on the growth of the strength of ‘the centre’ of government over the previous thirty years, meaning the prime minister, Prime Minister’s Office, Privy Council Office, Department of Finance, and Treasury Board Secretariat. It discusses every important actor in Canada’s federal government, with specific attention paid to the prime minister, cabinet, deputy ministers, the Clerk of the Privy Council, line departments, the Public Service Commission, and so on.

The overwhelming message is about the new dominance of the Prime Minister: over cabinet colleagues, the central agencies, and over parliament itself, which Savoie argues has a diminished capacity to hold the government to account. Savoie devotes considerable attention to the internal structures and machinery of the civil service, as well as the incentives experienced by individuals within it.

I strongly recommend the book for civil servants (especially those who deal with the central agencies or aspire to join them) and for anyone with a strong interest in how Canada’s government functions.

Some language tips from Strunk & White

William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White’s The Elements of Style includes advice on words and expressions that are problematic or often badly used. Where no alternative is listed, their advice is to avoid the use of that word or phrase.

I plan to scan the divestment brief (and my own academic writing) with this list before submission. If I had the programming savvy, I would figure out a way to add these to TextMate‘s syntax highlighting, using regular expressions.

One perspective

[American political science] is attacked for its alleged eschewing of the normative, ahistorical nature, obsession with the quantifiable, and cult of methodology which results in a sterile, status quo oriented political science capable of accumulating mountains of trivia, and incapable of attacking problems of moment.

Cairns, Alan. “Political Science and the Americanization Issue.” Canadian Journal of Political Science. 1975.

Advertising on this site

I am mindful of the fact that the advertising on this site is ugly, and often runs counter to the main lines of argument here. For instance, there are often ads for oil companies.

All told, the ads yield roughly $100 per year, which is enough to cover the costs of hosting the site.

Would people strongly prefer a site without ads? If so, would they be willing to donate to make that happen?

To be fair, I have always encouraged people to use advertising blocking plugins. Adblock Plus, for Chrome and Firefox, is excellent.