Should the public know who their MLA voted for as N.W.T. premier?

A former MLA says there should be more transparency on how N.W.T. premiers are elected. 

Elected members vote amongst themselves for the premier via secret ballot. The elected MLA requires more than 50 per cent of the votes to earn the position. The same is done for cabinet. But to Jackie Jacobson, the former MLA for Nunakput, this should change.  

"I think it should be public, now that I look back," he said. 

"The biggest thing in being an MLA is the accountability to the people that you're representing, they know who you're backing."  

Transparency always a good thing

A public vote for premier isn't a new idea; it's one that's discussed in almost every election.

For Ken Coates, the program chair of Indigenous Governance at Yukon University, transparency in politics is almost always a good thing.  

"So if they decide to vote for candidate A over candidate B, the community will know actually what's happened," he said. 

Coates said voting in secret leaves room for rumours of back-door deals — even if there aren't any. A public vote can help clear up any misconceptions.

"Right now the system allows for a fair amount of deal making, we don't even know what happens, we just know it happens," he said. 

"Will a new school in your constituency sway your vote in my favour. Yeah. If I upgrade the water system in your village, will that actually help you vote in my favour? Those are the kinds of things that people worry about."

With that same logic, he believes the vote for cabinet should also be public. 

"You're very often going to have someone who's going to be there for three or four years and if they're re-elected eight or 10 years. In a cabinet portfolio making million-dollar decisions on a regular basis and the public wants to know how they got there and who selected them," he said.   

A comparison he made was with the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, although he noted the premier of the N.W.T. and Speaker of the house are different for "a thousand reasons."

"It's this very, very public process where you have to say who you're voting for," he said. 

Though, Coates added the current turmoil in the U.S. system may be showing why it doesn't necessarily work, and isn't suggesting it as a model. 

But it allows the public to know if their representative is representing their interests and allows them to hold their elected official accountable. 

Coates said overall he likes consensus government better than party politics, because it requires the premier to have support from the majority of the legislature, not just the support of their party. 

Secret vote fundamental to democracy

Michael Miltenberger is a former MLA and cabinet minister and he believes the vote for premier should remain secret as MLAs deserve the same rights of private voting that all Canadians are entitled to. 

"If we don't want to have the secret ballot there in the most basic and important institution we have, where else do we want to start saying 'We want people to vote where we can all see?'"

"It's part of the process that makes it work," Miltenberger said of the secret vote for premier.

He said an alternative he's heard is to have the public at large vote on the premier, but that system would follow the American presidential system giving too much power to one representative. 

"How much say do we have with the prime minister? None, none whatsoever. If you're not a Liberal, you have absolutely no say," Miltenberger said. 

"Consensus government, at least everyone picks their representatives and the representatives all come together and the representatives all have a chance to get feedback from their constituents before the vote for their premier." 

What would need to change? 

Glen Rutland, the clerk of the Legislative Assembly, says nothing legislatively would need to change for members to vote publicly. The elected assembly can choose the premier, cabinet and Speaker however they see fit as long as they reach a consensus. 

"So the members themselves will decide how they will go about doing that election," he said. 

But Rutland said there are reasons previous assemblies have decided on the secret vote.

"In the past, members have generally said in a consensus government they all have to work together throughout the entire four years, so one of the reasons members in the past have supported the secret ballot is it allows them to be able to work together without the dynamics of an opposition versus the government," he said. 

Nomination period closed at 2 p.m. on Friday and three ridings went uncontested: Yellowknife South, Kam Lake, and Monfwi. Caroline Wawzonek, Caitlin Cleveland and Jane Weyallon Armstrong were acclaimed and there will be no vote for those ridings. 

This means if one of the acclaimed MLAs is elected premier, they would get the position without a single vote from the public.