The perils of mandatory minimums

The Honourable Danny Williams, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, said today that to ensure compliance with an unbelievably idiotic provision that he, himself, amended into the House of Assembly Act, a by-election is being called for the District of Baie Verte.

Yip. A by-election is being called this week for an electoral district that will cease to exist next week. Real smart, this mandatory 60-day by-election call rule.

It’s not like youse weren’t told, you know.

This sort of absurdity – or this sort, for that matter – might not have ever seen the legislative light of day if there were a competent, and independent, Chief Electoral Officer. So, too, would have even a cursory look at practice in other Canadian jurisdictions. But, no, we are going to stand on our own and inaudible.

Above all, the presence of even a handful of half-way competent MHAs in charge of making laws, might have nipped it in the bud. “Legislating”, it used to be called. Instead, the job of MHA has been reduced to handing out cheques.

And where were all the Great Lawyers™ when this bit of legislative nonsense was drafted, debated, and hustled through the People’s Assembly?

Mitigating factor: even though the by-election deadlines are mandatory, even in the last week of a legislature’s lifespan, the provisions for publicizing the electoral event are permissive. Otherwise, thousands of dollars might have had to be spent on the publication of by-election notices for a by-election that isn’t going to happen, in a district that is about to stop existing.