“… government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”
– Abraham Lincoln (Gettysburg Address)
During the last federal election campaign, Justin Trudeau promised that “2015 will be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system.”
That may have been fair ball, if the entire election campaign had revolved around that single issue. As in all election campaigns, however, that was only one minor issue among many campaign issues. Hence it is a stretch to say that the Liberal government has a mandate to change the system of electing our governing party.
There is probably no single issue that is more important than the method of choosing those who will govern us. Given a mandate to change the electoral system could very easily evolve into a system whereby the governing party could create a system that would ensure their electoral chances virtually forever. Arguably it could even create a virtual dictatorship.
Electoral reform has to be a slow process, and should include several opportunities for the electorate to decide exactly what type of system they consider to be a fair and just means of electing a parliament. As Trudeau also said: “If we're going to change the electoral system, people have to be open to that,” I would therefore suggest that the first step is to have a very general question to decide if we truly want electoral reform. I’m sure that the answer to this basic question will be yes but if the people reject this basic premise then that is an endorsement of the first past the post system that is currently in place.
Assuming, however, that the populace endorses electoral reform, then it will be necessary to narrow down the options. The available options would appear to be a proportional system or a preferential or ranked ballot system, where the candidates are ranked by priority.
But as they say, the devil is in the details. Once a system is chosen, then debate on the details is necessary to narrow down the options, as there are many possibilities including a vote for the candidate as well as the party, multi candidates in a riding or even the possibility of a party appointing a non-elected person in a proportional balloting system. This is where things get very complicated, as there are many different systems and nuances to choose from.
In an examination of some of the many systems around the world we can see countries where a majority government is a rarity because of a plethora of parties, each getting a small number of representatives creating often unworkable coalitions. Are Canadians prepared for a system of minority coalitions? That’s a good question that needs to be decided by debate and a detailed examination of all the options.
Electoral reform cannot happen overnight and it definitely cannot be foisted on the electorate by the fuzzy mandate that the current government, which was elected by fewer than 40 per cent of the voters. That is not government of the people, by the people, for the people!
Ken Allred is a former St. Albert alderman and MLA.
