As a St. Albertan born-and-raised, I am writing to express strong support for electoral reform.
This is the most important issue in this election cycle, and one I've been waiting on for decades. For all of the hacking away at the branches of any problems our country might have, our clumsy electoral system is the root of enough of those problems that we must take this historical opportunity to deal with it!
But I'm nervous to hear that representatives on the Special Committee on Electoral Reform seem to be backing away from a commitment to proportionality in electoral reform.
Elections are not sporting events, which should have winners and losers. An election succeeds only if it elects a government that represents the will of the people. Our current first-past-the-post (FPTP) system does not succeed on this in any election. Though it does manage to succeed over time on average, most citizens’ views are either vastly over or under-represented in any particular election results and therefore in any particular government.
Having investigated this issue deeply, it is clear to me that the fairest system begins with Single Transferable Vote (STV) in which, for example, groups of five current ridings are combined and together elect five MPs, with voters ranking their preferences from first to last.
This system dramatically improves many issues: • better match between the will of citizens and MP numbers • eliminates any need or benefit from voting strategically • allows almost all voters to feel they elected a particular MP • reverses voter disengagement caused by the above issues
STV does not fix the issue of under-representation of parties having less than about 20 percent support and therefore under-representation for those voters. This can most easily be improved by adding a layer of Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP) with about 20% regional/national MPs to top up those elected by STV and even out the proportions. Though implementing an MMP system without any STV is much less of an improvement because regional MPs do not represent any local constituents and are often selected from party lists, which takes power away from voters and gives it to political parties.
Above all else, STV with MMP is a much more fair and satisfying approach whose system and ballot are both easy for voters to understand. While it would mean more minority governments, it should be obvious that no government initiatives or policies should succeed without also having majority support from citizens. Instead they must build coalitions on an issue-by-issue basis. Under only minority governments, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson implemented universal health care, the Canada Pension Plan, the Order of Canada, our iconic flag, bilingualism and biculturalism, unified armed forces, and a tradition of peace-keeping: impressive results which are huge elements of our national identity. By working together in minority governments, we can still accomplish plenty and what is accomplished will always represent a majority of Canadians.
There is no more important issue facing Canada at this time. It is important we do what's right and not become embroiled in which political party might benefit somewhat more from one system or another. What matters is fairly and accurately representing the will of Canadians in our governments, and maintaining faith in our most important institution: voting.
Scott Walker, Toronto, Ont.
