Voting system doesn’t work, Fair Vote Canada's York Region chapter says

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 17, 2015
By Lisa Queen

With Canadians heading to the polls Oct. 19, this is the perfect time to talk about changing the country’s voting system and electing candidates willing to bring in reforms, Newmarket resident Teresa Porter says.

“It’s an important issue for me because I want to see a more democratic Canada, where the government represents all of the people in the country and not just the percentage that actually voted for them,” she said.

“If we have a government in power that only takes into consideration the people that support them, then half of the people are left out of the picture and their votes simply don’t count. I think we need proportional representation.”

Porter, one of a dozen people who attended a meeting Tuesday night at the Newmarket Public Library on electoral reform hosted by Fair Vote Canada’s York Region chapter, is upset parties can form majority governments without getting at least 50 per cent of the popular vote.

“When we can have a government elected with a false majority that can run roughshod over everybody and shut down debate, it’s not good for our democracy as a country,” she said.

While no electoral system is perfect, proportional representation provides citizens with better representation than Canada’s winner-take-all, first past the post system, Fair Vote York Region chapter president Dan Desson said.

“What we have now does not work,” he said. “It’s an unfair system. Not all votes are equal.”

The existing system results in millions of “wasted votes” because if the candidate you voted for isn’t elected, your voice won’t be heard in Ottawa, Desson said.

With proportional representation, the government would be made up of parties that more accurately reflect the way Canadians voted, he said.

For example, in the 2008 federal election, the Green Party got 948,000 votes but got no seats in the House of Commons. By comparison, the Bloc Party received 1.3 million votes and got 49 seats.

The current system often results in false majority governments with less than 50 per cent of the vote, Desson said.

Since the First World War, Canada has had 28 elections, resulting in 16 majority governments.
However, there have only been four true majorities - in 1940, 1949, 1958 and 1980 - where the winning party captured more than 50 per cent of the vote, Desson said.

After the 2011 federal, the Conservatives got a majority government with 167 seats. The NDP got 102 seats, the Liberals got 34, the Bloc got four and the Green Party got 1.

With proportional representation, the Conservatives would have earned 123 seats, the NDP 95, the Liberals 59, the Bloc 19 and the Green Party 13.

The existing system results in voter apathy and low voter turn out because many Canadians don’t bother casting a ballot if they feel the candidate of their choice has no hope of winning, Desson said.

The current system also makes people cast strategic votes, he said.

People often vote for a party they wouldn’t normally vote for if they believe it will oust a party they dislike rather than voting for a party that truly represents their values, he said.