By reading Régis Labeaume’s latest column1I said to myself that the former mayor of Quebec could have added an important component to his tribute to the resigning Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern.
The career of this woman in politics is exemplary and inspiring in many ways. To say thank you to him for his candor, his authenticity, his transparency, his lucidity, his humanity with regard to his noble exit from the stage is very appropriate. But we should also praise her and above all set her up as a model in view of her very democratic way of having exercised power.
Mme Ardern was first Prime Minister in the context of a government coalition, a consequence of the new compensatory mixed proportional voting system in force in her country, which had the audacity – unlike us – to put the old British electoral system on the sidelines. first past the post.
His way of leading the coalition with part of the opposition, the Green Party, was so exemplary that Mme Ardern won the next election, the last, with a majority of the seats.
A feat in a multiparty system managed by a proportional electoral system. Following this election, everyone expected that his party, the Labor Party, would henceforth govern alone, without sharing. However, against all odds, M.me Ardern chose to maintain the governance of his country in a political coalition. wow! What freshness! What audacity ! What a noble conception of representative democracy and the exercise of power! What a message for opportunists, cynics and autocrats everywhere.
Can we imagine such an attitude of openness in our country, where a Prime Minister has instead chosen to break his word and settle in power with 90 seats out of 125 thanks to the support of a little less than 41% of the electorate? All while promising not to make the promised reform, that is to say the opposite of what he had said and repeated before for seven years?
Despite what several analysts and commentators publicly affirm who glorify the status quo and who, de facto, maintain that it is naive to affirm that one can do politics differently, the example of Jacinda Ardern is the proof that they are wrong. It is also proof that a political culture of hating adversaries can be replaced by a culture of collaboration. Lofty ideals championed and implemented by honest and courageous people can overthrow centuries-old and outdated established orders.
Of course, political rivalries still exist in New Zealand, but the new electoral system makes it possible to think and act differently, more in line with the democratic ideal which promotes not only respect for the will of the popular majority but which also aims to broaden this majority as much as possible so that as many citizens as possible feel part of the story of state governance.
Yes, thank you, madam Ardern, for this great lesson in democracy in these turbulent times where populism and autocracy are increasingly taking their toll.