Lets get "proportional"
As our current election rolls on and polls suggest who and what people will vote, it appears that Canadians are frustrated and feel their voice is not being heard.
Whether it be the choice of leader or the fact that a party is simply not trusted with the responsibility of a majority, it seems Canadians do not like what they see. One simple piece of evidence of that is the inclusion of the Green Party into our national debates. Elizabeth May and her party have been brought to the national stage as a result of voter sentiment. The largest outrage came from 'swing' ridings, the gate keepers to parliament, when the "Greens" werer denied access to the debates. It would appear that Canadian voters want new choices or more choice.
Another disturbing trend is that citizens are voting strategically and not for who they want to see represent them. Further evidence of this behaviour, is the fact that individuals are mobilizing in places like facebook to organize this approach. This, one would assume, is not how democracy was intended.
Perhaps, these type of shifts in behaviour indicate that Canadians may be ripe for a significant change. That change is Proportional Representation. Canadians want to feel their vote counts and its current system does not do provide that.
What is Proportional Representation?
"The supporters of all political parties should be fairly represented in proportion to the votes they cast. Parties should have no more and no fewer seats than their popular support warrants. There should be no phony majority governments." http://www.fairvotecanada.org/en/
To sum it up simply, a party's representation in Ottawa would be based on the percentage of votes they earned during election time. If a party wins 60% fo the vote, then they would recieve 60% of the seats in Parliament.
There are critics who claim this would throw goverments into dissaray and would result in constant elections. Considering the state of politics in our country, we already have constant election, with no majority in site, but no advantages.
This system is nothing new. It is something that is incorporated by many countries around the world, including Austrialia, Germany, Italy and Isreal.
The purpose of this article is to encourage discussion, as our current system is considerably faulty. Please take a look at the resources below to inform yourself further.
Join me at The WoodLawn Review for other interesting topics and feel free to let me know what you think.
Resources
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Fair Vote Canada is holding a contest (with cash prizes!) to guess how many of us will waste our votes this time on candidates do not get elected.
www.OrphanVoters.ca
Tip: Last election, there were over 7.5 million "orphan voters".