If there is no other reason for first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting it is that your Member of Parliament (MP or other elected person) represents your community, your neighbours and you. This is the single most prized advantage of FPTP voting. It uniquely individualizes government for the citizen. Our MP is our personal point of contact.
Political parties would much prefer that you only vote for the party. That way, you might carelessly elect the village idiot to parliament. And we do that occasionally. It is only embarrassing to us when others realize what an idiot the person is and blame the community that elected him or her.
But calling FPTP a democratic abomination is a bit silly. It is a system that has worked well for Canadians for about 150 years. The only reason that many other parts of the world do not use FPTP is that it requires a reasonable level of literacy among the voters to recognize the names on the ballot. In countries that require pictographs to make a choice, proportional voting is the only system that works.
Another option is preferential voting whereby the voter has to choose his or her preference of candidates in a one-two-three sort of lottery. We will leave it to more skilled mathematicians to lead you down and around the garden path on that one. The only question is why anyone would want to settle for other peoples’ second choice when you can have a run-off election? While there are all kinds of screams about the costs of run-off elections, they pale compared to the costs of elections themselves.
The more important question that comes up is how are we as a country going to determine any new system of voting? A writer the other day complained that we could hardly have a referendum because it was most likely nothing would change. This ridiculous writer suggested that since Canadians had never had the chance to vote on their own constitution they should not have a vote on what system they will use to vote. And when realizing the contradictions of his position, he fell back on the trite statement that he “did not give a damn.”
But we have to give a damn. Electing our political choices and deciding how this country should be run is far too important to be left in the hands of politicians and newspaper reporters. First we examine, then we propose, then we discuss and then we vote on a new method. That is the only acceptable process.
-30-
Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]