COLUMN: Viewpoint – Democratic convention prompts comparisons

Watching the recent American Democratic National Convention I found myself making comparisons between Canada and the United States.

I was impressed delegates were wholehearted supporting the election of a female president. We haven’t ever elected a Canadian female prime minister though we did have one for two months in 1993, when Kim Campbell replaced a retiring Brian Mulroney as Conservative Party leader.

Many Democratic speakers addressed ending gun violence, now the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States. We can be glad that here in Canada our tougher gun laws mean our statistics are much less grim, although still higher than in some other countries.

A very effective presenter at the Democratic convention was Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. She is one of 10 female United States governors. This means one fifth of American governors are women. In Canada there is only one female premier. One tenth of our premiers are women. If half the population is female, doesn’t representation by population suggest half our political leaders should be female too? The United States seems closer to that goal than we are right now.

A Democratic election priority is restoring abortion access nationwide as we have in Canada. Since the American Supreme Court struck down the Roe v Wade ruling that legalized abortion the abortion rates in the United States have risen. Of course data gathered worldwide, shows that abortion rates are typically higher in countries that ban abortions. The pro-life justices ignored this fact, as well as the will of the American people. Forbes Magazine reported last week that 70 percent of Americans support access to abortion in all or most cases. A 2024 Leger poll reported that support is at 80 percent in Canada.

It was heartening to hear about Democratic goals to provide affordable medical care, parental leave, free birth control, subsidized post-secondary educations, quality public schools, and access to good childcare. These are the things research shows helps reduce abortion numbers and improve a country’s quality of life. I’m thankful we already have most of these services in place here. It’s probably why our country’s abortion rates have been plateauing or dropping and why Canada is a much more supportive place to raise children than the United States.

Many of the speakers at the Democratic convention addressed the increase in book banning in schools in the United States and warned of its dangers. The Vancouver Sun recently reported that challenges to books particularly about LGBTQ or BIPOC topics, or by authors from those groups, tripled in the United States in 2023. According to the Alberta Gazette here in Canada challenges to books doubled last year. Although our numbers are lower they are still concerning.

Kamala Harris dramatically became the Democratic party’s presidential nominee just a month before their convention. She has only 100 days to carry out her campaign, a process that usually goes on for eighteen months or more and is subsidized by mega wealthy donors.

Here in Canada our federal election campaigns can’t be longer than 51 days and we have much stricter rules about campaign donations. In my view our system is far better. It’s more efficient and so much less costly. Our elected officials are able to spend more time focusing on governing instead of campaigning and fundraising.

Perhaps, their experience with the condensed Harris campaign will make Americans reexamine their expensive lengthy election process and take a lesson from their northern neighbours about the value of conducting a different kind of campaign.

Watching the Democratic National Convention got me engaged in a kind of compare and contrast exercise with Canada. It was thought-provoking.