It's still early in the federal election campaign. Still, one can't help but notice a glaring omission in all of the parties' pronouncements thus far: democratic reform.

At one time, not so long ago, Prime Minister Paul Martin declared that under his leadership the government would address the "democratic deficit." A few years before that, the predecessor to the modern Conservative Party, the Canadian Alliance, was formed largely around the idea that both politicians and our national government had to be more accountable to the electorate. And the NDP has long promoted wholesale reform -- even going so far as to champion proportional representation as an alternative to our first-past-the-post system for electing MPs.

The larger concept of democratic reform encompasses ideas such as: empowering back-benchers by giving greater powers to parliamentary committees; allowing free votes in the House of Commons; reforming the Senate; providing for formal parliamentary advice and consent on major appointments; voter recall; referenda; and fixed election dates.

Such an agenda offers the tantalizing possibility that the basic way Ottawa functions could be reformed. It might even provide an antidote to growing voter apathy. If MPs -- and the voters who elect them -- are given a real voice in the way the country is governed, Canadians will no longer see their participation in the political process as an empty ritual.

The risk to the political elites, of course, is that they would have to pay heed to the masses -- instead of maintaining the existing paternalistic system, by which a small group of politicians in the ruling party tells us what's best. Democracy can be unwieldy sometimes, and is not always as smoothly choreographed as a campaign event. It invites competing views that are often dramatically at odds. It evokes passion, bias --and words that later come to be regretted.

It also requires that at the end of the speeches and debates, someone has to lead, make decisions and then live or die by them. It requires the government to make its case rather than doing as it pleases after forcing its caucus to cough up the necessary votes.

Some believe we get better government in a minority Parliament because it forces positive compromise. But imagine if every government, whether majority or minority, had to earn support for its legislative agenda through the strength of its proposals? Around the nation's water coolers, maybe we would talk less of politicians' inane antics and more about their ideas.

And so back to my original question: Why has no party sought to capture our sense of imagination and return to the theme of democratic reform?

Canada needs a more vibrant democracy. Young people have to feel motivated to vote, and even volunteer for political parties, knowing it all means something. Even among middle-aged people, Ottawa should be able to rekindle some of the spirit of possibility they felt in their 1960s-era youth (in comparison to which the young people of today look like a bunch of crotchety old fogies). For the elderly, our democracy should remind them why their generation made so many sacrifices back in the day when our nation actually had to take up arms for the cause of freedom.

Thus far, it has been the usual stuff. Stephen Harper may have hit on a modestly popular idea with a GST cut, but no one has laid claim to a really big idea. We need something transformational -- something that captures our imagination in a way that has not happened perhaps since the free trade debate.

A comprehensive blueprint for democratic reform would fit the bill. If the Liberals and NDP are so convinced of a minority outcome that they need to backslap each other in the first week of the campaign, then maybe they should develop a common position on what they would do to make Parliament more accountable. Maybe the Conservatives could also reach agreement with the NDP position, so that democratic reform would triumph no matter which party got the most seats.

The first step to implementing such a plan is talking about it. And so far, no party is even doing that. In coming weeks, that must change.
© National Post 2005