It looks like Benjamin Netanyahu has once again used the Israeli form of proportional representation to cling to power in the Israeli Knesset. Israel uses proportional representation that only allows the voter to select a political party. The representatives are then appointed according to each party’s closed lists. What it means is that ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu, with only 25 per cent of the popular vote, can now put together the coalition he wants to control the Israeli government.
The difference in Canada is that our major parties have to reach for a plurality of the votes. That forces them to put their coalitions together before the election, not afterward. Canadians can see what they are getting.
When Netanyahu took a hard swing to the political right during the election campaign, it was mainly posturing to get as many right wing votes as possible. Those he could not win over were the parties that he is now negotiating with to form a coalition. He has to get the support of the extreme right wing as well as adding the ultra orthodox religious parties to his coalition.
If Canada used proportional representation, we would also have more than a dozen parties. Whichever party won the most seats would then be given an opportunity to form a government that could win support in parliament.
It is because of our first-past-the-post system of voting that our fewer parties are broader in their coverage of voters. The Conservative Party of Canada, for example, was created by Stephen Harper from the Canadian Alliance which had replaced the Reform Party of Canada and the older Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
The new Conservative Party was made up of the right wing of Canadian politics that included the religious right’s anti-abortionists, the social conservatives such as the pro-death penalty supporters and the business supporters.
The Liberal Party of Canada also covers a broad spectrum of both left and right wing as its philosophy is based more on individual rights. It attracts intellectuals as well as some of the more progressive unions and has dominated much of the last 100 years of Canada as a country.
The third party, the New Democrats, are still mired in the unionism of the early 20th Century and have been trying hard to move toward the middle of the political spectrum.
This is why Canadian parties spend so much effort in campaigning in defining where they might like to go if elected. Voters always need to know: What is the emphasis this time?
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(And that is about as much as you can simplify Canadian politics in less than 500 words!)
Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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