Murphy's Logic: Great majority creates great responsibility

The people of Nova Scotia have spoken, giving Progressive Conservative Premier Tim Houston an even larger majority government.

It’s an impressive win in every respect. Unofficially, the PCs won more than 50 per cent of the popular vote, electing members in every region of the province, claiming 43 of 55 seats. It’s a super-majority, figuratively and literally.

In Nova Scotia, it requires a vote of two thirds of the members to change the procedural rules of the legislature. The PCs now have enough votes to do that without the consent or co-operation of the opposition parties.

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That might sound like “inside politics,” something that doesn’t matter to anyone outside the house, but it does.

In our system of government, there are relatively few controls on a majority government. A party that controls the legislature can do pretty much what it wants with a simple majority – 50 per cent plus one. But opposition parties are able to use house rules to assure fulsome – some would say tiresome – debate on government initiatives. A government with a super majority can change the rules to curtail debate, silencing critical voices of opposition.

There’s irony in that. The larger a government’s majority, the greater the need to hold it to account for the way it exercises its mandate and its power. That’s not to say that the will of a clearly expressed and expanded majority should be thwarted by process, but it should be held in check.

In Nova Scotia, the super majority will rule. It’s only a question of how it will wield its power.