Canada seems to be suffering a temporary supension of democracy.

Democracy requires the freedom to express opinions and the right to vote freely. Both are absent in the House of Commons, where the will of the people is supposedly articulated. Outside Parliament, Canadians can express whatever opinions they wish, but to little effect since voters lack real choice.

The prime ministers office is busily shutting down whatever freedom of expression the House of Commons once enjoyed. The one oasis of freedom used to be the committee system. Members of Parliament could speak their minds relatively freely on committee. Committees even had some limited control about who was elected chair.

Now the prime ministers office has made it clear that the prime minister will determine who says what on committee and how government MPs will vote. The prime minister will also choose who is elected committee chair, something to be enforced by threats against government and opposition MPs if necessary.

Earlier this month, the Finance Committee was set to elect Liberal MP Roy Cullen as chair. Then the prime minister decided Liberal Sue Barnes should be chair. Prime ministerial strong arm tactics elicited complaints from both government and opposition MPs.

Last week, Finance Committee member Shawn Murphy, a PEI Liberal MP, expressed skepticism about government plans to impose a $12 "security" charge each time anyone boards an airplane. Ms. Barnes, now happily in the chair and ready to do the prime ministers bidding, immediately called a recess to head off this attempt at free speech.

The rebellious Mr. Murphy suddenly disappeared. When the committee was called back into session, Mr. Murphy was no where to be seen. Another Liberal was seating in his seat. When finally Mr. Murphy returned from the gulag, his views had swung round. The airport fee was just fine with the changed Mr. Murphy.

Pierre Trudeau once famously said that when MPS "are 50 yards from Parliament Hill, ...they are nobodies." The current prime minister has made MPs nobodies on Parliament Hill. Only the non-elected Senate shows any sign of independence with, for example, its stinging report on national security last week.
   
   

The prime minister can only suppress free speech among his own MPS, but given his massive majority -and his willingness to use it to stifle debate -what MPs of other parties say is pretty irrelevant.

The other parties are much to blame for this state of affairs. An effective opposition is a government in waiting. That puts pressure on the government to act responsibly. An election will arrive sooner or later.

Canada has no government in waiting. The New Democratic Party remains frozen in time and thought. Social democratic parties around the world have reformed themselves and started to offer sensible policies. But, the NDP remains to the left of the British Labour Party of the 1970s, which itself became known as the "loony left," leaving the Canadian NDP the "even loonier left."

Nor are prospects better on the right. The clarion call to "unite the right" resulted in an even more fractured right. Goodness knows what will result from the Alliance leadership race, but neither of the two leading contenders, Stephen Harper or Stockwell Day, have any interest in uniting Parliaments splintered right.

A disunited right is hardly likely to gain power.

Nor does the other fractured tidbit of the right want to unite. Conservative leader Joe Clark once promised he would resign after the last election. Now he wants to fight another election. But, Mr. Clarks policies are just a paler shade of Liberal.

Despite all the troubles the Liberals and the Alliance have inflicted upon themselves, Mr. Clark has not been able to make the Conservatives serious contenders for power.

Thats where we find ourselves. Democracy and free speech have been shut down within Parliament and its highly unlikely Canadians will have the luxury of real choice in the next election. These are disappointing times indeed. Fred McMahon is Director of the Centre for Globalization Studies at The Fraser Institute, a Vancouver-based economic research organization. His column appears every Tuesday. He can be reached at fredm@fraserinstitute.ca.