Canadian democracy is 174 years old today. On the 11th of March 1848 Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine with his partner Robert Baldwin were asked by the Governor General, Lord Elgin, to form a government.
Why were they chosen? Because they had the confidence of the House of Commons. That is the primary definition of our democratic system – that any government must have the confidence of the House. And the House, of course, is chosen by the citizens.
Was the system seriously flawed? Yes. Were key elements missing? Yes. All the same, theirs was one of the first parliamentary democracies in the world and Canada can be considered the world’s oldest continuous democratic federation. In other words, our democracy has not been interrupted by civil wars or dictatorships.
This first Canadian democratic government lasted for three years during which it put in place official bilingualism, advanced public education and laid the foundations of our contemporary refugee, immigration and citizenship policies, among many other things.