The pattern has hardened into method: omnibus budget bills that swallow unrelated legislation, committee scrutiny avoided or truncated, trade and procurement shielded from publication. Electoral reform was declared “not a priority” at the first opportunity. The strong mandate, in practice, has become a reason to consult less, not more.
None of this is illegal, which is precisely the problem. The accountability file — transparency deficits, procurement shields, update delays — shows a government that treats parliamentary process as friction to be managed rather than the mechanism that legitimizes its power.
A mandate is permission to govern, not a substitute for scrutiny. The longer the government governs by omnibus and avoids the committee room, the more it teaches Canadians that elections are the only checkpoint that matters — and that lesson corrodes the institution it was elected to lead.
The Point: A majority is a mandate to govern, not a waiver from being watched. The democratic deficit is the one deficit this government never plans to close.