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Things get stranger and they get worse. When the government was finally brought down, they were returned with a majority government. Now, the counting was fair and the party’s campaign was above board. But alongside their campaign was a massive one run by unions and interest groups. Those groups seemed sometimes indistinguishable from the campaign personnel of the governing party. And those same unions were preparing to negotiate labour agreements with the party in power. These fellow-travellers could raise and spend money without limit and effectively without oversight.

This cake comes with icing. The provincial police force actively inserted itself into the campaign, releasing information about investigations into the governing party. At the same time, the police union campaigned against the principal opposition party. Soon, even the union representing most journalists came out against that opposition party.

Of course, all of this describes Ontario and its most recent election. We can be forgiven if it leaves us with the impression that elections in our province are akin to the lopsided affairs of banana republics.

None of this is to suggest that Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals won the election unfairly. Far from it, they ran an effective campaign within the rules of game. Likewise, they previously governed well within the rules and conventions of the Ontario government.

The problem is the rules. First, the Ontario legislature operates under a set of rules that make it nearly impossible for a single opposition party to move motions of non-confidence. This is not normal and it is not democratic. I am hard pressed, in fact, to identify a single Westminster legislature in which it is more difficult to signal non-confidence in a government. There’s no wonder, then, that the Liberals, with a complicit NDP, could hold on in a minority for 30 months. And let us be clear: the ability of the legislature to hold the executive accountable by signalling it has lost confidence in the government is central to the functioning of our parliamentary system.