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Independent politician - Wikipedia
Course: World Politics (GOVT1202)
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Independent politician
An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand
for office as an independent.
Some politicians have political views that do not align with the platforms of any political party, and therefore choose not to affiliate with them. Some independent politicians may be
associated with a party, perhaps as former members of it, or else have views that align with it, but choose not to stand in its name, or are unable to do so because the party in question
has selected another candidate. Others may belong to or support a political party at the national level but believe they should not formally represent it (and thus be subject to its
policies) at another level. In some cases, a politician may be a member of an unregistered party, and therefore officially recognised as an independent.
Independents sometimes choose to form a party, alliance, or technical group with other independents, and may formally register that organization. Even where the word
"independent" is used, such alliances can have much in common with a political party, especially if there is an organization which needs to approve the "independent" candidates.
Independent politicians are not allowed to run for office in Brazil. The Constitution of 1988, in Article 14, §3rd, item V, says that "Are conditions for eligibility: V - party affiliation".[1]
However, the Proposal Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) no. 6/2015, authored by independent senator José Reguffe, would allow the independent candidacy of individuals who
have the support of at least 1% of the electors able to vote in the region (city, state or country, depending on the election) in which the candidate is running.[2][3] Currently, members
of the legislature can leave their respective parties after being elected, as in the case of senator Reguffe, who left the Democratic Labour Party (PDT) in 2016.[4] Jair Bolsonaro was
independent between 2019 and 2021.
In Canadian federal politics, members of both the House of Commons and the Senate are permitted to hold office without being members of a political party. Candidates in federal
elections who are not affiliated with a party have two options: independent or no affiliation. In the former case, they appear on the ballot with "Independent" following their name; in
the second case, they appear with their name only. The two options are otherwise equivalent.
During the earliest Canadian Parliaments, a lack of coherent political identity among both the Liberal and Conservative parties is known to have led to Members of Parliament (MPs)
occasionally demonstrating independence from their party by voting in line with the opposition.[5] Commonly, the issues which caused these MPs to act independently were religious
in nature.[5] These tensions began to disperse over the course of the first ten Canadian parliaments as the major political parties began to form consistent identities and MPs began
affiliating themselves with the parties they knew more closely shared their core values. This in turn increased cohesion between parties and MPs, and minimized the causes and
motivations for MPs to act independently.[5]
Most observers of the Canadian House of Commons in the 21st century have noted its incredibly high party discipline. Few MPs choose to vote against their party's official stance on
any given piece of legislation.[6] Between 2011 and 2013—the first two years of the 41st Canadian Parliament, following the 2011 Canadian federal election—the elected members of
the governing Conservative Party voted as a unified group on 76% of all votes, while members of the Liberal Party did so on 90% of all votes, and members of the New Democratic
Party (NDP) did so on 100% of votes.[6] This unity further increased in subsequent years, as in the 42nd Parliament, following the 2015 election, the governing Liberal MPs voted
identically on 99.6% of all votes, Conservative MPs on 99.5% of votes, and NDP MPs on 99.8% of votes.[6] Thanks to this strong party discipline, it is uncommon to see politicians who
are otherwise affiliated with any of the main political parties act independently of their party.
Though it is acceptable and accepted for politicians to serve as independent MPs, those who attempt to run as such often struggle to be elected without access to the resources of the
major parties. As a result, there are seldom more than one or two independent MPs within modern Canadian Parliaments, with many who do sit as such being initially elected as a
part of a major party before either leaving voluntarily or being removed.[7] In the first year of the 44th Canadian Parliament, the House of Commons featured one sitting independent
member: Kevin Vuong, from the Ontario electoral district, or riding, of Spadina—Fort York.[8] Vuong had originally campaigned as a member of the Liberal Party during the 2021
federal election but was ejected from the party two days prior to the end of the vote due to controversy surrounding past allegations of sexual assault.[9] Despite his removal from the
Liberal Party, Vuong won the election for his riding and chose to hold on to his seat as an independent, though this decision was met with controversy because many voters had not
known that the Liberals had expelled him before casting their votes.[9] In 2022, Alain Rayes, MP for the Quebec riding of Richmond—Arthabaska, who had been elected as a
Conservative MP in three successive general elections, resigned from its caucus to sit as an independent,[10] becoming the second independent MP of the 44th Parliament.
Independent politicians have on occasion held considerable sway in the House of Commons of Canada in recent years, as Canada has been governed by successive minority
governments (five of the seven that have been formed since the 2004 federal election) with independent MPs sometimes sharing in the balance of power.
In 2004, Chuck Cadman was elected to the House as an independent MP representing the British Columbia riding of Surrey North. Cadman was first elected to represent the
riding as a Reform member in the 1997 federal election and re-elected as a member of the Canadian Alliance, Reform's successor party, in the 2000 federal election. He sought
the nomination for the Conservative Party (re-created in 2003 when the Alliance and Progressive Conservatives merged) for the 2004 election but was unsuccessful. He died in
office in 2005.
Independent André Arthur was elected in the Quebec riding of Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier in the 2006 federal election. He was the only independent to win a seat in that election;
he was re-elected in the 2008 federal election. Arthur lost his seat in 2011.
Bill Casey, the MP for the Nova Scotia riding of Cumberland—Colchester—Musquoduboit Valley, was expelled from the Conservative Party for voting against the 2007 budget. He
also ran as an independent in 2008 and retained his seat with 69% of the vote. Casey resigned from the Commons in 2009, before the end of his mandate, but was elected in the
same riding, renamed Cumberland—Colchester, as a Liberal in 2015. He sat in the House for the 42nd Parliament and did not seek re-election in 2019.
In 2019, MP Jody Wilson-Raybould ran as an independent candidate in the riding of Vancouver Granville after being expelled from cabinet and the Liberal Party over the SNC-
Lavalin affair. She was returned to Parliament with 32% of the vote. After sitting as an independent for the 43rd Parliament, Wilson-Raybould did not seek re-election in 2021.
While traditionally framed as an "independent body of sober second thought", appointments to the Senate of Canada prior to 2016 were commonly seen as highly partisan, with the
majority of Canadian senators identifying themselves as members of either the Liberal or Conservative parties and serving within their party's caucus.[11] As these have been the only
two parties to ever form government in Canada, only the Liberal and Conservative parties had been able to appoint new senators. Because Canadian senators are appointed by the
Governor General of Canada on the advice of the Prime Minister rather than being elected, senators were often accused of being appointed as a "reward" for service to the party in
power,[12] and once appointed, of simply repeating the points and positions of their counterparts in the House of Commons rather than acting as a means of truly independent policy
review.[11]
In 2014, as a response to growing public disapproval of the Senate and the perceived problems brought about by senator partisanship, Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau made the
decision to expel all Liberal senators from the Liberal Party caucus. Trudeau would go on to call for an overall elimination of partisanship in the Senate and pledged to end the
practice of partisan appointments for senators and transition to a new system of merit-based appointments if elected Prime Minister.[13]
Following the election of a Liberal majority government in 2015, the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments was established with the goal of filling Senate vacancies
through a selection process based on political knowledge, merit, and perceived ability to act independently of partisan affiliation.[13] This push to remove partisan ties from the Senate
resulted in the creation of the Independent Senators Group, a coalition of both newly appointed independent senators and formally partisan senators who had relinquished their
formal party ties, alongside the also independent Canadian Senators Group and Progressive Senate Group.[12] By 2018, the majority of Canadian Senators were officially
independent,[12] though some Liberal senators continued to remain affiliated with the political party despite no longer being permitted within the party caucus.[11] Additionally, the
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