Sault Ste. Marie political scientist says timely party platform releases are important to democracy

As Ontario prepares to go to the polls on Thursday to vote for a new provincial government, a political scientist from Sault Ste. Marie says it's more important than ever that Canadians hold on to their democratic practices.

Algoma University professor Trevor Tchir says he's not a fan of snap elections, such as the one called in January by Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford.

He's also concerned that some parties were late to confirm their candidates and to release their platforms – the PCs having only done so on Monday.

"I think that it's important that at a time when politics seems a little bit crazy, if we look south of the border, that we hold on to some of our key democratic practices," Tchir said.

"One of the things that leaders who are trying to shift toward more authoritarian practices try to do is to create an environment of hopelessness and unpredictability, where we can't rationally talk about public issues and public events." 

Tchir's remarks come a little over a month into the second presidency of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has, among other things since his January inauguration, threatened the territorial sovereignty of three countries – Canada, Denmark and Panama; withdrawn U.S. support for Ukraine's defence against Russia's invasion; instigated trade wars with Canada, Mexico and China; and presided over mass layoffs of federal staff workers.

'A buffer against manipulation'

Tchir recognizes that many people don't read party platforms before voting, he said.

Many are drawn to parties because of the leader or the candidate.

But, he said releasing platforms is still important, because it gives parties an opportunity to state their values, and it gives voters an opportunity to make a rational choice between different policy offerings. 

"It's important as a kind of buffer against manipulation of citizens by political parties who try to put forward very vague discourses, and very vague catch phrases, instead of talking about what concrete policies they stand for," he said.

Nowadays, he added, the difference between left and right is perhaps less important than the difference between democratic and authoritarian tendencies. 

Tchir recalled the federal election campaign of 1993, when the Liberals, under Jean Chretien, released a detailed "red book," containing their platform, at the start of the campaign.

Since then, he said, parties have gradually leaned toward releasing less detailed platforms, releasing them later in a campaign, and sometimes releasing them in the form of individual policy announcements rather than a single collection of promises. 

Releasing a full platform early in the campaign can invite scrutiny, he said.

And Tchir feels that it has led some parties, particularly populist ones, to cynically conclude that they will get more votes if they don't tell people what they plan to do.

He conceded that many voters are also cynical because politicians don't keep their promises anyway. But he said sometimes there are good reasons for that, such as Stephen Harper's decision to move away from austerity budgets during the 2008 financial crisis. 

"You can at least get a read on what the party says it stands for, and that's a lot better than nothing," Tchir said.

It also lets people know what to expect from their local representatives in Parliament or at Queen's Park.

Tchir said he dislikes snap elections, calling them a cynical ploy to get reelected by not giving people enough time to consider their options before going to the polls.

"I wasn't comfortable with the Trudeau snap election during the COVID pandemic either," he said. 

"That felt really rushed and pointless as well.  So it's not just a conservative vs. liberal type thing."