Democracy compromised by Canada’s voting system

[Locutus]

In the wake of Monday’s by-elections, and in particular the result in Calgary Centre, a great many people have expressed their concern about the problem of “vote-splitting.” I can see why. After all, were it not for the split in the anti-Liberal vote, the Liberal candidate would never have managed to finish second.

Similarly, it was only the split in the anti-Green vote that allowed the Green candidate to slip into third place. And don’t get me started on Victoria, where rampant vote-splitting among the anti-New Democrats handed victory to the party that 63 per cent of those voting voted against. Clearly it is time to unite the non-Liberal, non-Green, and non-NDP forces: a broad coalition of the antis.


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Democracy compromised by Canada

 

[PoliticalNick]

If we are going to have a representative system instead of a direct democracy I propose doing away with voting entirely and have MPs & MLAs chosen by random draw from the electorate. They can serve 2 years and go back to their previous jobs, almost like jury duty. A few qualifiers are all that is required. I believe we would get much better representation of the people this way as it would give a broader cross-section of society as our govt and do away with party-line, whipped votes on the issues.

 

[coldstream]

I'd like to see a graduated voting system.. where everyone chooses a 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice whereby the low vote getter is eliminated (and those who voted for him/her have their 2nd and then 3rd vote counted).. until the a majority is achieved or the all 3rd place votes are exhausted. It would probably require a computerized system of administer. but its feasible.. The first past the post system is demonstrably unrepresentative of the popular will.

I'd also like to see a place on every ballot marked 'present'.. for those who deem they cannot vote for anyone.. but feel obligated to cast a ballot.

 

[relic]

Don't say coalition,steve will take another fit,shut down the govt and pout.

 

[L Gilbert]

I'd like to see a graduated voting system.. where everyone chooses a 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice whereby the low vote getter is eliminated (and those who voted for him/her have their 2nd and then 3rd vote counted).. until the a majority is achieved or the all 3rd place votes are exhausted. It would probably require a computerized system of administer. but its feasible.. The first past the post system is demonstrably unrepresentative of the popular will.

That is the single transferable voting system.
A group in BC tried that but the way the gov't's ruling goes you have to have quite a bit more than a majority of people for it in order for it to pass.
BC-STV - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anyway, in this FPTP system we have, there is extremely little democracy involved.

 

[taxslave]

We could do like the US and just have a two party system. That way there is only Us and Them. Cuts down on paperwork and a lot less speachifying at all candidates meetings.

 

[L Gilbert]

We could do like the US and just have a two party system. That way there is only Us and Them. Cuts down on paperwork and a lot less speachifying at all candidates meetings.

lol We already have that.

 

[taxslave]

lol We already have that.

2 that get any vote. There were about 10 candidates here last election. Most of them should have been in a rubber room.

 

[Cliffy]

Where is the Rhino Party when ya need um? They really knew how to put politics in the proper perspective.

 

[damngrumpy]

First of all we have a parliamentary democracy and a multi party system and it works just fine.
yes there is vote splitting and that is just the facts of life in the system.
No I do not want the preferred ballot where we chose first second and third. I am a particular
kind of voter.
Let's use this as an example only If I were a Tory why the hell would I vote Tory first and Liberal
second or vice verse.
New Democrats don't want to support another party even on a second choice.

So all we do is waste paper. If they did that I would plump and all the parties would encourage
voters to Plump only vote for one person. If you forced people to vote for more democracy would
fly out the window.

The reason we got rid of preferred balloting in BC prior to 1952 is because it didn't work and it still
won't work. Why are we going back a half century to drag up old voting systems. The other thing I
oppose is this proportional representation. That is where if you get 30% of the vote you get 30% of
the seats. Nuts first past the post works very well.