Electoral reform is past due
Election Canada 2006
The link above will take you to a website that talks about electoral reform in Canada... which reminds me of a little story.
One day I walked into an Indigo book store, and was browsing about, when I stumbled upon a copy of something along the lines of "The Ten Minute Guide to Democracy" - the who's who in the zoo of democracy. I turned it over to read the description on the back, and I noticed something very interesting - above the UPC code was a note that read Not For Sale in Canada.
How odd. Why would they not allow us to buy this pocket guide to democracy - unless our democracy was, in fact, a complete sham - and the publishers (or perhaps the government) do not want any Canadians to figure out that the world that we live in doesn't truly exist (for more on this, rent the Matrix ;)
Anyways... I have ranted half my lifetime about the system, and how it sucks - and here is a solution to fix the problem.
The quick solution is to implement what they call proportional representation. One where the number of votes truly reflects the number of seats that a party holds in parliament (and ultimately the power). Here is how the pie is sliced after the recent election (stolen shamelessly from the fairvotecanada blog):
Bloc: 1 MP per 30,432 votes
Conservatives: 1 MP per 43,305 votes
Liberals: 1 MP per 43,457 votes
NDP: 1 MP per 89,333 votes
Greens: 0 MPs for 665,876 votes
The entire picture is not complete without a little more information - the approximate seat distribution, with a proportional representation would have looked something like this:
Conservatives (36.3% of the popular vote): 113 seats (not 124)
Liberals (30.1% of the popular vote): 93 seats (not 102)
NDP (17.5% of the popular vote): 59 seats (not 29)
Bloc (10.5% of the popular vote): 31 seats (not 51)
Greens: (4.5% of the popular vote): 12 seats (not 0)
Quite the different picture, but it doesn't end there. Because the need for strategic voting goes away (i.e. I don't like the Conservatives, so I am going to vote Liberal - who I don't particularly care for either - just to try to avoid having a Conservative represent me). Instead - I can go vote for the party whose platform I believe in, and my vote would TRULY count... resulting in a higher voter turnout (apathetic people generally couldn't be bothered to vote today, but they might be convinced IF their vote actually counted for something).
This is the system that needs to be implemented. We are in dire need of electoral reform, and the message needs to get out there. It seems as though the damage has already been done for this round - but there is always the future, so let's get on this thing folks. Visit the Fair Vote Canada website and sign the petition or give them some money, or both.
Things have got to change... and soon!
The link above will take you to a website that talks about electoral reform in Canada... which reminds me of a little story.
One day I walked into an Indigo book store, and was browsing about, when I stumbled upon a copy of something along the lines of "The Ten Minute Guide to Democracy" - the who's who in the zoo of democracy. I turned it over to read the description on the back, and I noticed something very interesting - above the UPC code was a note that read Not For Sale in Canada.
How odd. Why would they not allow us to buy this pocket guide to democracy - unless our democracy was, in fact, a complete sham - and the publishers (or perhaps the government) do not want any Canadians to figure out that the world that we live in doesn't truly exist (for more on this, rent the Matrix ;)
Anyways... I have ranted half my lifetime about the system, and how it sucks - and here is a solution to fix the problem.
The quick solution is to implement what they call proportional representation. One where the number of votes truly reflects the number of seats that a party holds in parliament (and ultimately the power). Here is how the pie is sliced after the recent election (stolen shamelessly from the fairvotecanada blog):
Bloc: 1 MP per 30,432 votes
Conservatives: 1 MP per 43,305 votes
Liberals: 1 MP per 43,457 votes
NDP: 1 MP per 89,333 votes
Greens: 0 MPs for 665,876 votes
The entire picture is not complete without a little more information - the approximate seat distribution, with a proportional representation would have looked something like this:
Conservatives (36.3% of the popular vote): 113 seats (not 124)
Liberals (30.1% of the popular vote): 93 seats (not 102)
NDP (17.5% of the popular vote): 59 seats (not 29)
Bloc (10.5% of the popular vote): 31 seats (not 51)
Greens: (4.5% of the popular vote): 12 seats (not 0)
Quite the different picture, but it doesn't end there. Because the need for strategic voting goes away (i.e. I don't like the Conservatives, so I am going to vote Liberal - who I don't particularly care for either - just to try to avoid having a Conservative represent me). Instead - I can go vote for the party whose platform I believe in, and my vote would TRULY count... resulting in a higher voter turnout (apathetic people generally couldn't be bothered to vote today, but they might be convinced IF their vote actually counted for something).
This is the system that needs to be implemented. We are in dire need of electoral reform, and the message needs to get out there. It seems as though the damage has already been done for this round - but there is always the future, so let's get on this thing folks. Visit the Fair Vote Canada website and sign the petition or give them some money, or both.
Things have got to change... and soon!
posted by Clinton Wasylishen | 6:53 PM
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