2015 ELECTION #4: ELECTION REFORM

31 March 2015

2015 ELECTION #4

The winner-take-all method has turned our votes into a mockery of democracy and it’s up to Canadians to order change. The desperate need for election reform is here and now but said to be impossible for this year. It is possible if we get off our apathy and demand it. No need for a referendum, just do it.

The First-Past-the-Post electoral system is not serving Canadians’ best interests because it does not result in the actual popular vote. As the name implies, it works like a horserace. The first candidate to get more votes than any other wins the election. The rest take 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th place respectively and the remainder of the votes are never included or counted.

In the 2011 election there were 7,000,000 of those or nearly half of the votes cast.

Proportional Representation guarantees that all votes are counted and elect someone on the ballot, that you will have a candidate of your choice, even your second choice, representing you in the House of Commons. You may also choose the party.

In this way there will never be a need to manipulate an election or vote strategically to get the lesser of all evils to represent you.

It’s possible because Canadians want it. A poll by Environics a year ago found that 70% want PP. The country deserves to have a fair election, now more than ever when so few people want to vote because it’s just not efficacious. The result is we have skewed elections with the worst possible system, first-past-the-post, when we should have Proportional Representation and are deprived of it. As I've said before, the galling thing is the necessity to use the strategy vote to get someone in power who will represent us. 

We are in a very bad place with elections. We are worried about government manipulation of the election in light of the Robocall case when a young man was hung out to dry by the Conservatives, (and we got to pay the bill), and new legislation, Bill C-23, by this government ensures that voter suppression can go undetected. In fact, we just don’t trust the government and very few other politicians.

We have never agreed to unfair elections but have allowed governments to manipulate and propagandize us into thinking our vote was worth something. But have a look at these figures by Fair Vote Canada taken from the 2011 election:

            35,152 votes elected one Conservative MP

            43,810 votes elected one NDP MP

            81,855 votes elected one Liberal MP

            222,857 votes elected one Bloc MP

            572,095 votes elected one Green MP

There should never be another election in Canada where a third of the votes grant one party over 50 per cent of the seats. To allow this to happen again in 2015 will be our fault for not taking the responsibility to demand it doesn’t happen to us again.