The following is part of our on-going primer on vote reform that is based on our Democracy Papers of 2007. This is the fifth of the vote reform series.
Democratic Reform Minister Maryam Monsef was quoted recently as saying that “Elections should unite Canadians and not appeal to narrow constituencies.” That statement was seen by supporters of proportional representation as a rejection of PR systems. And even if she was not intending to directly dismiss PR, that is the effect.
What the supporters of PR should realize is that Canadian political parties are already broadly based coalitions. The Liberal Party of Canada is probably the broadest based in that it embraces the political spectrum from democratic socialism through to financial conservatism. Liberal policy meetings are always embroiled in arguments over conservation of the environment, women’s and aboriginal rights, industrial strategies, free trade and expanding immigration. It is often referred to as a big tent party.
Even the New Democratic Party confounded voters in the last federal election by promising balanced budgets ahead of the party’s more serious concerns for the working poor and disadvantaged in our society.
But what all supporters of different forms of proportional voting have to realize is that PR effectively encourages the creation of narrowly based parties with a specific axe to grind. Under PR voting, it might not be long before organizations such as Right to Life or even the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) realized that they would be far more effective as political parties.
This has been shown to be the way things work in PR countries around the world. All you have to do is win more than three to five per cent of the national vote and you will have your own Members of Parliament in Ottawa. And as these pressure group parties increase, the potential for any party to win a majority in parliament will decrease.
It is the ability of pressure groups to offer to coalesce with major parties who just need a few more seats to take over the government. And the pressure groups will continue their support just as long as the ruling party gives in to their demands.
There are many countries caught up in this type of pressure. If, for example, you ever wonder why the religious laws in Israel are so overbearing, just check the current coalition in the Knesset that the religious parties are supporting this time around.
People supporting PR in Canada seem to make all kinds of promises for the supposed fairness of the system but they also need to take a look at the different problems the system can produce.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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