You can prove just about anything with polls. I was laughing the other day at a poll for Fair Vote Canada that claimed 76 per cent of Canadians wanted a citizens’ assembly on electoral reform. We had a citizens’ assembly picked by lottery in Ontario that proposed a mixed member proportional system for voters to decide on during the provincial election in 2007. It was rejected by about two to one.
It is hard to imagine anything more ridiculous than having people take part in a citizens’ assembly by lottery. Why would you want anyone on a citizens’ assembly who did not know anything about the subject under discussion? Nor would you want too many representatives from Fair Vote Canada. These people have one avowed objective. They want proportional representation. That means, they want a party that gets 25 per cent of the votes to get 25 per cent of the seats in the elected body.
It might sound fair but how do you then have your member included in the elected body? Our current system is based on having people elected in electoral districts of approximately equal numbers of citizens. The votes are counted and the individual with the most votes is declared the winner. This is commonly called first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting.
This system, which has been refined over hundreds of years, ensures representation to people throughout the jurisdiction. You have your member. He might represent your neighbour more than you, but you had the opportunity to vote for or against that person as did your neighbour.
Proportional voting is designed for jurisdictions where many of the voters are either illiterate or speak many languages or dialects. It is easiest for them to vote for a symbol representing each of the political parties. Typically, the leader of the party is the first selected and then different types of lists are used to select the people who will represent that party in the legislature.
Proportional voting can also lead to long waits for a government to be cobbled together because no party has a majority. These governments can also fall, often when disagreements overcome reason.
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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry
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