Do we really need a majority government?

So far in the 2011 federal election campaign we’ve heard that to get a continued economic recovery we need a majority government.  But do we really?

If we look back in time, some of the most progressive legislation passed has been the result of minority governments.  The first old age pension act was passed into power in 1927, when J.S. Woodworth supported the Mackenzie King government in exchange for pensions for seniors.

In 1966, Canadians were able to get universal health care after Tommy Douglas, leader of the NDP, was able to persuade Lester Pearson and the Liberal government to pass the Medical Care Act.

If we look at Canada today and how it came through the great recession, we see Canada indeed had a milder recession and stronger recovery than other advance industrial countries.

While one of the reasons for the recovery can be partly explained by the strong global demand for our resources, another reason, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, is that Canada had one of the largest fiscal stimulus packages of any advanced industrial country.

How did this fiscal stimulus package come to be?

In the fall of 2008, in the response to government’s economic stimulus package and the threat of a coalition, the government requested a prorogation of Parliament and came back in early 2009 with an economic stimulus strategy featuring many of the key demands that the opposition parties had included in their coalition discussions. 

So who really is responsible for the economic recovery the government, or the opposition parties who worked together to ensure the government brought forth an economic stimulus strategy?

Perhaps instead of fear mongering over a possible coalition or minority government, political parties should focus on giving Canadians a good government.