Democratic Reform Minister Maryam Monsef must feel like Cinderella—left behind while everyone else goes to the ball. And here she was under the impression that the Prime Minister was asking her to do something important. We could have given her a head’s up but she ignored us.
Even the chattering classes have been admitting in print and broadcast media lately that nobody is particularly interested in her approach to voting reform. They can say this because they are mainly interested in the process proposed and have few answers on the subject.
This was obvious nine years ago when Ontario had a referendum on the question. Voting reform is just not a hot topic. Awareness of the issue takes a rare mixture of political experience and frustration, extensive study of alternatives and a curiosity about how people feel about issues. There was no surprise when the Ontario rejected the proposed Mixed Member Proportional system in 2007 but what surprised some was the number of people who voted ‘yes’ who had no idea what they were voting for.
What is very clear up front is that the Trudeau government is going to have to find a way to back gracefully away from the foolish pledge to change the way we vote. Mind you, they can keep their promise by simply changing to Internet voting and an offer of run-off votes in close races. Internet voting is cheap enough to make run-off voting fast, feasible and frugal.
The opposition in Ottawa would not have as much to complain about with this approach as balance in parliament can be restored in the second vote. It is hard to deny voters a reasoned second vote.
The main complaint about first-past-the-post voting is that you can get elected with less than 50 per cent of the votes when there are three or more candidates. Run-off votes are much more democratic than preferential voting.
Preferential voting requires the voters to number their choices 1, 2, 3, etc. The losers’ second choices are then counted to decide the winner. This effectively makes the losers the choosers.
But seeing what happened in the first vote can change people’s minds about their second choice. As the French say about their run-off system “You vote with your heart in the first vote; you vote with your head in the second.”
-30-
Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]