It seems Ottawa is indeed proceeding with an exploration of reforming our electoral system, if today’s Globe and Mail report is to be believed.
The NDP has been pushing electoral reform since the last election, and the article elaborates on this:
The NDP — which would be warm to the idea of a review — has been in the forefront of the discussion on electoral reform and supports introducing proportional representation to the system. PR, as it is known, is a system under which the number of seats a party wins is fixed by the percentage of popular vote it garners. In other words, a party receiving 15 per cent of the votes would receive 15 per cent of the seats to the House of Commons.
PR would help smaller parties like the NDP, while reducing the seats of parties like the Liberals. The government, for example, earned 45 per cent of the votes in Ontario in the previous election, and came away with 75 per cent of the seats.
Personally, our first-past-the-post system hasn’t ever been a sore point with me. I’ve heard all the cries of democratic-dictatorship, and all the complaints about unfair distribution of seats compared to percentage of votes. But the system has given us majority governments that — for good AND for ill — have managed to advance policy agendas without the negotiating nightmare that seems to be a hallmark of other nations.
But some reform would certainly be welcome, because I’m not opposed to the occasional minority government being elected from time to time. Ideally, I would like a system that has an equal chance of providing majority AND minority governments.
My personal favourite is the preferential ballot. You mark your vote based on a ranking of the candidates (eg. if there are 4 candidtates, you mark them by preference from 1 to 4). If the first choice does not receive 50% of the popular vote, second place votes are counted, then third place, until one candidate emerges with 50% of the vote. It’s elegant, simple, yet gives people a chance to have their preferences count, and provides for a majority victory.
I also like the idea of splitting up the system so that two thirds(2/3) of the House of Commons seats are elected in the current fashion, while the remaining third are elected proportionately, based on at-large members.
There are many possibilites, and lots of room for debate. The Globe article seems to indicate that the Federal Government is finally open to the idea of exploring change. If they DO act on this, it could prove the stabilizing force Paul Martin needs to make this current minority government last.
But I won’t hold my breath…
