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Introduction of party labels on the ballot in 1972 was a seismic change to Canadian party politics: Alex Marland

Jody Wilson-Raybould, pictured on Feb. 27, 2019, on the Hill before the House Justice Committee meeting to talk about the SNC-Lavalin affair, about two weeks after she resigned from cabinet. She successfully ran as an Independent in the Oct. 21, 2019, federal election, after she went public with her story and said she was inappropriately pressured by the prime minister and top officials in the PMO to enact a deferred prosecution for SNC-Lavalin. We should be sounding the alarm about the growing power of political parties to act as gatekeepers over who gets a seat in the House of Commons, and about the waning power of individual candidates and MPs, which stems from changes to the Elections Act that took effect in the 1972 federal election, writes Alex Marland. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion
January 24, 2022

Opinion | January 24, 2022

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Books, Big Ideas, Q&As

Introduction of party labels on the ballot in 1972 was a seismic change to Canadian party politics: Alex Marland

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