Coalition - an affront to democracy?

I have been dying to say something about this for 2 years, since the supposed coalition scandal that heated up politics in Canada (since then they have predictably cooled off)

When Stephane Dion and Jack Layton entered into an agreement of coalition to overtake the government run by the conservatives there was a huge debate on whether this was democratic or not. Risky words, such as coup de tat and power grab created an excitement that has barely existed in this country since its creation. But was it really undemocratic? a coup de tat? Here are some arguments I heard that need to be dispelled.

"I did not vote for Stephane Dion to be Prime Minister"- well you are correct that you did not vote for Dion to be PM...however, unless you are a member of the riding of Saint-Laurent - Cartierville, or Calgary Southwest (Harper), Toronto - Danforth (Layton) you didn't vote for anyone to be PM. You voted for a member of Parliament that happened to be a part of a specific party.

"Coalitions are un-democratic" - not really. If you consider the make up of parliament and the true purpose of it, coalitions are more democratic than one party rule. The CPC received 37% of the votes in 2008, where as the Liberal and NDP received 44% of the total votes. When you add in Bloc support that is 54%. That is a majority in any terms.

Whether or not this coalition was capable of running this country is not the point of this blog. The point is to outline just how unknowledgeable Canadians are about their own system. The parliamentary system was modeled after the British parliamentary system, only we have a written constitution enforcing this system. As this coming week will prove, coalitions are commonplace in a parliamentary system.

Some questions that are raised due to this whole "debacle":

1) Exactly who holds the power in parliament: Parliament or the Prime Minister? Our system is not set up as one where the PM is above the will of parliament on any occasion. Yet 2 times in the past year Harper has prorogued parliament, both seemingly to "save his ass".

2) How knowledgeable are Canadians, and how much do they need to be taught? The scary thing here is if the right person comes along, with the right charisma and manipulative personality, Canadians can be pulled in a very bad way.