User:W.N.Mason/Independent politician

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In Canadian federal politics, both members of the House of Commons and the Senate are permitted to hold office without being members of a political party. [Candidates in federal elections who are not affiliated with a party have two options: independent or no affiliation. In the former case, they appear on the ballot with "Independent" following their name; in the second case, they appear with their name only. The two options are otherwise equivalent.]

Due to a lack of coherent political identity among both the Liberal and Conservative parties in the early days of Canadian governance, Members of Parliament (MPs) were often seen as being more willing to exhibit greater independence from their party, occasionally leading them to actively vote against their party's official policy stance on key issues.^[1] A common cause for these early displays of independence was disagreements between MPs and their parties on policy relating to religious beliefs.^[1] These tensions began to disperse over the course of the first ten Canadian parliaments, as party identities began to solidify and aspiring MPs began affiliating themselves with those they knew more closely shared their core values, which in turn increased cohesion between parties and MPs, and minimized the causes for MPs to act independently.^[1]

In the 21st Century, the Canadian House of Commons is generally regarded by most observers as having incredibly high party discipline, with MPs rarely electing to not vote in conjunction with the rest of their party.^[2] Between 2011 and 2013, members of the governing Conservative Party voted as a unified group on 76% of all votes, with members of the Liberal Party doing so on 90% of all votes, and with members of the New Democratic Party (NDP) doing so on 100% of votes.^[2] This unity had generally increased in subsequent years, as following their victory in 2015, Liberal MPs voted identically on 99.6% of all votes, Conservatives MPs on 99.5% of votes, and NDP MPs on 99.8% of votes. ^[2]

Though it is completely acceptable for politicians to serve as independent MPs, those who attempt to run as such often struggle to be elected without access to the resources of the major parties. As a result, it is rare for there to be any more than one or two independent MPs within modern Canadian Parliaments, with many who do sit as such being initially elected as a part of a major party before either leaving voluntarily or being removed.^[3] As of 2022 and the 44th Canadian Parliament, the House of Commons features only one sitting independent member: Kevin Vuong. ^[4] Vuong had originally campaigned as a member of the Liberal Party during the 2021 federal election but was ejected from the party two days prior to the end of the vote due to controversy surrounding past allegations of sexual assault.^[5] Despite his removal from the Liberal Party, Vuong won the election for his riding and chose to hold on to his seat as an independent, though this decision was met with controversy due to many voters being unaware of his removal before casting their votes.^[5]

[Independent politicians have on occasion held considerable sway in the House of Commons of Canada in recent years, as Canada has been governed by successive minority governments with independent Members of Parliament sometimes sharing in the balance of power. In the 2004 federal election, Chuck Cadman was elected to federal parliament as an independent MP representing the British Columbia riding of Surrey North. Independent André Arthur was elected in the Quebec riding of Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier in the 2006 federal election, and was the only independent to win a seat in that election; he was re-elected in the 2008 federal election. MP Bill Casey, who had been expelled from the Conservative Party for voting against the 2007 budget, also ran as an independent in 2008 and retained his seat. In the 2019 federal election, MP Jody Wilson-Raybould ran as an independent candidate in the riding of Vancouver Granville after being expelled from the Liberal Party over the SNC-Lavalin affair. She was returned to Parliament with 32% of the vote.]

While traditionally framed as an "independent body of sober second thought", appointments to the Canadian Senate prior to 2016 were commonly seen as highly partisan, with the majority of Canadian Senators identifying themselves as members of either the Liberal or Conservative parties and serving within their party's caucus.^[6] As they have been the only two parties to ever form government in Canada, only the Liberal and Conservatives Parties had been able to appoint new Senators. Because Canadian senators are appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister rather than being elected, senators were often accused of being appointed as a "reward" for service to the party in power,^[7] and once appointed, of simply repeating the points and positions of their counterparts in the House of Commons rather than acting as a means of truly independent policy review.^[6]

In 2014, as a response to growing public disapproval of the Senate and the perceived problems brought about by senator partisanship, Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau made the decision to expel all Liberal senators from the Liberal Party caucus. Trudeau would go on to call for an overall elimination of partisanship in the Senate and pledged to end the practice of partisan appointments for senators and transition to a new system of merit-based appointments if elected Prime Minister.^[8]

Following the election of a Liberal Majority government in 2015, the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments was established with the goal of filling Senate vacancies through a selection process based on political knowledge, merit, and perceived ability to act independently of partisan affiliation.^[8] This push to remove partisan ties from the Senate resulted in the creation of the Independent Senators Group, a coalition of both newly appointed independent senators and formally partisan senators who had relinquished their formal party ties, alongside the also independent Canadian Senators Group and Progressive Senate Group.^[7] By 2018, the majority of Canadian Senators were officially independent,^[7] though some Liberal Senators continued to remain affiliated with the political party despite no longer being permitted within the party caucus.^[6] Additionally, the Conservative Party elected not to remove its senators from the party caucus, and many Conservative Party senators continued to publicly keep their official partisan affiliations.^[6] When asked, Conservative Party leader Andrew Sheer told reporters that, if elected, he would reinstate the practice of partisan appointments to the Senate.^[9]

The efforts to increase Senator independence have led some to argue the Senate has developed an increase of importance and power in the legislative process. As of 2021, it was found that Canadian Senators were facing increasing pressure from lobbyist groups on a variety of issues, suggesting the more independent Senate has a greater perceived influence over legislative issues.^[7] Additionally, following the appointment of Senators through the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments, there has been a noted increase in the number of Amendments the Senate has proposed for legislation from the House of Commons.^[6] Between 2015 and 2019, the Senate attempted to amend 13 government bills, in contrast to the 2011-2015 Senate, which only attempted to amend a single government bill.^[6] The reformed Senate is noted as having proposed amendments on at least 20% of all legislation.^[10]

Several observers and those involved with the Senate itself have criticized the Trudeau government for its attempted reforms, with most accusations centering around the belief that the new appointment process is biased towards those who are ideologically supportive of the Liberal Party's objectives. Remaining Conservatives Party Senators have accused the Independent Senators Group in particular as being "too quick to endorse bills from the Liberal government".^[6] Supporting this claim, a 2021 study found that members of the Independent Senators Group voted in favor of legislation proposed by the incumbent Liberal government more consistently than any other group within the Senate, including those still formally aligned to the Liberal Party.^[10] This was, however, among an overall trend in which all Senators demonstrated lower levels of party loyalty, and as such its full implications are still unknown, and the report also concluded that partisanship in Senate appointments was undeniably down when compared to before the reforms.^[10] It is generally thought that it will only be possible to accurately judge the success of the attempted reforms when a non-Liberal governments elected to the House of Commons, at which point it can be observed if the noted trend in voting represents simple loyalty to the government, or loyalty to the Liberal Party.^{[10] [8]}

[The territorial legislatures of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are consensus governments with no political parties. All members sit as independents. There are a few independent members of the other provincial and territorial legislatures, which are similar in principle to the federal House of Commons; for example, in the 2009 British Columbia general election, independent candidate Vicki Huntington narrowly defeated incumbent Attorney General Wally Oppal in Delta South. In the 2019 Newfoundland and Labrador provincial election, two independent candidates were elected.]