It is appalling the number of Canadians who say they want voter reform without bothering to research or understand the subject. Sitting in an audience recently with apparently a high percentage of New Democrat supporters, it was surprising how eager they are to reform how we vote. The speaker made an inane claim for proportional voting and they applauded wildly.
What these enthusiasts do not understand is that to adopt proportional representation in this country is to give up on democracy. We have this tradition of electing our best and brightest to our provincial capitols and our nation’s capitol. It is a system that has suffered greatly the last couple decades but we can hardly give up on it without a fight.
Proportional representation was initially designed to accommodate illiterate voters. The voter only needs to make a mark for a party by name or pictograph. The various parties are then entitled to choose members of the governing council according to their share of the vote.
Canada’s First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system came to us from England where it started with people gathering at the village square to shout out their preference for a member of parliament. It is our ability to choose our member of parliament that is the most precious part of our system of government. This person answers to us.
Admittedly we have far too many people in this country who just vote for a party without considering the individual. Thankfully there are still some who do not want to vote for the village idiot just because he or she represents their favourite party.
What we are considering is that in as much as the same people pushing voting reform want to do something about the Senate of Canada, they can make the senate proportional according to the FPTP vote for the House of Commons. While the negotiations for that with the Province of Quebec would be interesting, there might just be a formula that would work.
This suggestion would give us the opportunity to renew the senate after every federal election. That would reduce its sense of entitlement, increase its energy and reflect a more contemporary attitude. And since the FPTP system can produce majorities of seats in the commons without a majority of the popular vote, the government party would not necessarily have a majority in the senate. This would ensure a more balanced examination of legislation by the senate and give the country better government.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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