Personally, I'm repelled by the idea of proportional representation, as it would essentially force me to vote not for a person, but for a party. And I would rather vote for thinking human beings who could 'cross the floor' if need be should a party go crazy for whatever reason. In fact, if it were up to me, I'd kick all the parties out and make all the candidates officially independents, at least as they appear on the ballot.
On the other hand, I'm aware thatPR is gaining support in some circles. If push came to shove and it became clear that PR was winning, what would be the options fr those of us who would rather vote for a candidate?
One thought I'd considered was the following compromise:
On your ballot, you could choose to vote for a candidate or a party!
Each riding would choose a candidate by counting the votes for candidates according to the traditional first-past-the-post system, while the votes for parties would be counted separately add added to the total national party vote. In parliament, the folowing persons would get to vote: one candidate for each riding, plus the party learder for all the parties. The candidates' votes woud be of equal value, while the party votes would be according to the number of national votes for the party.And the value of the candidate votes in relation to party votes would represent the ratio of party-to-candidate votes nationwide. This way, those who want PR could get their PR, but those wo want to vote for an actual human being could do that too. In this case, perhaps we could say that a candidate must run as an independent, seeing that only one person will represent each party in parliamen anyway.
I'd be curious to know if PR supporters would generally be interested in this kind of compromise, so that those who want to vote PR could do so, hile those who want to vote for a human with a pulse could do so too.
On the other hand, I'm aware thatPR is gaining support in some circles. If push came to shove and it became clear that PR was winning, what would be the options fr those of us who would rather vote for a candidate?
One thought I'd considered was the following compromise:
On your ballot, you could choose to vote for a candidate or a party!
Each riding would choose a candidate by counting the votes for candidates according to the traditional first-past-the-post system, while the votes for parties would be counted separately add added to the total national party vote. In parliament, the folowing persons would get to vote: one candidate for each riding, plus the party learder for all the parties. The candidates' votes woud be of equal value, while the party votes would be according to the number of national votes for the party.And the value of the candidate votes in relation to party votes would represent the ratio of party-to-candidate votes nationwide. This way, those who want PR could get their PR, but those wo want to vote for an actual human being could do that too. In this case, perhaps we could say that a candidate must run as an independent, seeing that only one person will represent each party in parliamen anyway.
I'd be curious to know if PR supporters would generally be interested in this kind of compromise, so that those who want to vote PR could do so, hile those who want to vote for a human with a pulse could do so too.