Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I’d like to talk a little bit about consensus government. I’m not going to do justice to this very, very big topic in two and a half minutes, Mr. Speaker, but coming up on 15 years working in consensus government, Mr. Speaker, I am starting to not think that this is the best way to govern our Territory. I don’t want to be particularly critical of anybody or anything, it is the system in which we work, but, Mr. Speaker, there are some downfalls.
Mr. Speaker, the consensus government purports to have significant cooperation between all Members. We come here as 19 Members all independently elected to serve in this House, and then consensus government dictates that we should all get along and work together. In a perfect world maybe that would happen. But, Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is that we all come from diverse backgrounds, we have different ideas about what the priorities of the government should be, and then we get into the system and we choose our Cabinet and our Premier.
Mr. Speaker, in that system there’s a significant gap between that leadership we put in place for four years and the public and the electorate, the people who put us here. I think that is one of the downfalls of consensus government and it’s one of the advantages of party politics.
Mr. Speaker, party politics they say is too adversarial. Well, I think anybody that’s been watching the 16th Assembly would say that perhaps consensus government is not the most congenial way of getting business done either. So that’s one of the arguments against party politics.
Mr. Speaker, people who really purport to support consensus government say, “but it’s a great system because we get to see everything in advance. They tell us all the details behind closed doors in advance, in secret.” Well, what good does that do us if we can’t go out and talk to our constituents about it?
Me, personally, I want to tell you, the valuable debate that goes on on that stuff goes on behind closed doors, and by the time it ever makes it onto the floor of this House, everybody’s kind of worn out of talking about it. So, Mr. Speaker, I’m not so sure that getting information in advance is a great thing. I’d rather see something, put it on the table, and then let’s have a meaningful discussion, dialogue and debate and then let’s take a vote on it.
Mr. Speaker, I have often said this, I don’t like going over things two or three times. It’s a waste of time. Like I said -- I only have a few seconds left here, but, Mr. Speaker -- I think that there are other opportunities for governing this Territory that should and could be, and need to be looked at at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
