Ontario voters rejected a scheme for mixed member proportional voting in a 2007 referendum because the political parties wanted to appoint party faithful to the provincial parliament so that they would have representation according to the party’s popular vote. That is the scheme that New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair promises to use in future federal elections if he is elected Prime Minister. It is also the scheme that is used in countries with high rates of illiteracy.
Mr. Mulcair makes the outrageous statement in supporting this system that “The current system over represents some voices and silences others.” He goes on to try to convince us that not every vote counts in the present first-past-the-post voting.
Instead of taking the time to study different voting systems and letting the people make the decision, Mr. Mulcair and his party want to impose a process that puts unelected people in parliament to represent their political party. He ignores the fact that in Canada we have always tried to send the best people to parliament rather than people who vote blindly for a party. You would think he would have noticed how badly that idea has worked for Canada’s Conservative Party.
What is really wrong with the NDP stand on this issue is that much of the propaganda for the system is based on lies. FairVote Canada whose ideas the NDP are cribbing say that more people will support proportional voting but never provide a reason why they would. It is like the statement that this would improve the representation by women and other marginalized groups. First of all, women are not marginalized in Canada and the NDPers supporting this foolishness need to talk to women MPs in the NDP caucus.
The NDP point to the present system of voting as the reason the number of voters has been falling. One can also make a strong argument that the lack of interest among some segments of the population is more the fault of our politicians than the voting system. The recent ‘Fair’ Vote Act that is designed to disenfranchise many thousands of Canadians is also an example of a government desperate to stay in power.
The New Democrats seem to be desperate to get a turn in the Prime Minister’s office. The prospect of them then changing the voting system to their advantage is not going to appeal to many Canadians.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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