Sunday, October 08, 2006
Why even have by-elections?
The Toronto Sun's Christina Blizzard believes elected members of the legislature who resign their offices before their term is over should pay for the by-elections created to choose their replacements.
I think that's silly. No one who quits their job, for whatever reason, is expected to pay for the cost to hire a new person. People quit for all kinds of reasons. That's life.
My suggestion? Why not do what the Americans do? When someone leaves early, they either have someone in place already as a replacement, like the vice president, or someone is appointed to fill the job for the remainder of the term. In Canada, you can have the leader of the party who loses the member make the appointment. That's just one possibility. It's not perfect, but it does save taxpayers the cost of having a by-election, doesn't it?
