What is wrong with Canada's electoral system
2008.10.18 06:10 PM Filed in: Politics
Okay, it's been a few days and I've calmed down a lot after the election, but I did want to get this out so here goes. But first, I must take this opportunity to bash Harper one more time. 
Stephen Harper has announced a six point plan for the economy. That's all well and good; why did he announce it the DAY AFTER THE ELECTION?!?!?!? That guy really makes me uneasy. I agree with the conspiracy theorists that say that Harper has some kind of nasty radical plan that he's keeping quiet until he can unleash it on us. But alas, that is not the point of today's post.
The Conservative government was elected because more people in Canada want them than the alternatives, right? Wrong. After all, it's only a minority government. Out of 308 seats total, the Cons were elected in 143 of them. That's 46.43% of the seats, so in a reasonable and democratic electoral system, that would mean about 46% of the 23,401,064 eligible voters (or 10,865,114 people) cast their ballots for the Conservatives. But they didn't. Thanks to our messed up and antiquated parliamentary system, it only took 37.63% of the ballots cast to get 46.43% of the seats. Further still, October 14th, 2008 was the lowest voter turnout in Canadian history! Of the 23,401,064 eligible voters, only 13,832,972 (or 59.11%) people actually showed up. Ten million Canadians didn't bother to vote! In my opinion, that's a horrible slap in the face of democracy, but more on that later. What this means is that with only 5,205,347 votes, the Conservatives get a strong minority government. Only 22.24% of eligible voters actually voted for them. Then why are they in power?!?!? This explains why very few people I talk to are Conservative supporters; 77.76%, or the vast majority, did not vote for them. That, my friends, is seriously messed up!
Okay, so why did ten million Canadians decide they had better things to do than spend the 10 minutes it takes to get out and vote? I'm theorizing here, but I imagine some of them aren't informed and don't want to cast an uninformed vote (which is commendable but lazy at the same time), some of them have legitimate reasons like illness or being away from home throughout both the advanced polls and the official election day, but I imagine a good number of people feel like their vote doesn't count.
For example, I've heard (i.e. I can't back this up with fact) that many NDP supporters in Alberta didn't bother voting because it's such a strong Conservative area. In fact, Alberta had only 52.9% voter turnout. Of the 28 seats in Alberta, 27 were elected Conservative and the 28th was NDP. 64.62% of the Albertan vote was Conservative. In that scenario, what's an NDP'er to do? Most of the NDP votes (and all of the Liberal and Green votes) won't make a difference because of the overwhelming Con majority in that province. There's just not enough of them to flip a seat from Conservative to anything else. I'm going to go out and publicly say it: our Canadian electoral system is not democratic. If it was, then the Cons wouldn't have 46% of the seats when 78% of the eligible voters didn't vote for them.
Here's how it turned out with our flawed electoral system where whoever has the most votes in a given riding wins the seat and all the other votes are essentially null and void:
Conservatives: 143
Liberals: 76
Bloc Québécois: 50
New Democrats: 37
Independents: 2
Greens: 0
Other: 0
Here's how it should have turned out if Canada had a representative system where everybody's vote counts and the number of seats in parliament was proportional to the total number of votes:
Conservatives: 116
Liberals: 81
New Democrats: 56
Bloc Québécois: 31
Greens: 21
Independents: 2
Other: 1
That looks a lot more fair and balanced to me. The Cons still would have won, but at least it would have been a much narrower margin. It also would have been proportional to what the people actually wanted and I can't argue with that; I would respect that. Also, the other parties would have turned out quite differently since many people (myself included) voted strategically for the candidate with the best probability of beating the Conservative candidate as opposed to voting for the party that they really wanted to vote for. And finally, if everybody's vote counted and held the same weight no matter how the rest of your neighbours voted, then there would be much higher voter turnout - guaranteed! Then, my fellow Canadians, we'd finally have true democracy in Canada.
Stephen Harper has announced a six point plan for the economy. That's all well and good; why did he announce it the DAY AFTER THE ELECTION?!?!?!? That guy really makes me uneasy. I agree with the conspiracy theorists that say that Harper has some kind of nasty radical plan that he's keeping quiet until he can unleash it on us. But alas, that is not the point of today's post.The Conservative government was elected because more people in Canada want them than the alternatives, right? Wrong. After all, it's only a minority government. Out of 308 seats total, the Cons were elected in 143 of them. That's 46.43% of the seats, so in a reasonable and democratic electoral system, that would mean about 46% of the 23,401,064 eligible voters (or 10,865,114 people) cast their ballots for the Conservatives. But they didn't. Thanks to our messed up and antiquated parliamentary system, it only took 37.63% of the ballots cast to get 46.43% of the seats. Further still, October 14th, 2008 was the lowest voter turnout in Canadian history! Of the 23,401,064 eligible voters, only 13,832,972 (or 59.11%) people actually showed up. Ten million Canadians didn't bother to vote! In my opinion, that's a horrible slap in the face of democracy, but more on that later. What this means is that with only 5,205,347 votes, the Conservatives get a strong minority government. Only 22.24% of eligible voters actually voted for them. Then why are they in power?!?!? This explains why very few people I talk to are Conservative supporters; 77.76%, or the vast majority, did not vote for them. That, my friends, is seriously messed up!
Okay, so why did ten million Canadians decide they had better things to do than spend the 10 minutes it takes to get out and vote? I'm theorizing here, but I imagine some of them aren't informed and don't want to cast an uninformed vote (which is commendable but lazy at the same time), some of them have legitimate reasons like illness or being away from home throughout both the advanced polls and the official election day, but I imagine a good number of people feel like their vote doesn't count.
For example, I've heard (i.e. I can't back this up with fact) that many NDP supporters in Alberta didn't bother voting because it's such a strong Conservative area. In fact, Alberta had only 52.9% voter turnout. Of the 28 seats in Alberta, 27 were elected Conservative and the 28th was NDP. 64.62% of the Albertan vote was Conservative. In that scenario, what's an NDP'er to do? Most of the NDP votes (and all of the Liberal and Green votes) won't make a difference because of the overwhelming Con majority in that province. There's just not enough of them to flip a seat from Conservative to anything else. I'm going to go out and publicly say it: our Canadian electoral system is not democratic. If it was, then the Cons wouldn't have 46% of the seats when 78% of the eligible voters didn't vote for them.
Here's how it turned out with our flawed electoral system where whoever has the most votes in a given riding wins the seat and all the other votes are essentially null and void:
Conservatives: 143
Liberals: 76
Bloc Québécois: 50
New Democrats: 37
Independents: 2
Greens: 0
Other: 0
Here's how it should have turned out if Canada had a representative system where everybody's vote counts and the number of seats in parliament was proportional to the total number of votes:
Conservatives: 116
Liberals: 81
New Democrats: 56
Bloc Québécois: 31
Greens: 21
Independents: 2
Other: 1
That looks a lot more fair and balanced to me. The Cons still would have won, but at least it would have been a much narrower margin. It also would have been proportional to what the people actually wanted and I can't argue with that; I would respect that. Also, the other parties would have turned out quite differently since many people (myself included) voted strategically for the candidate with the best probability of beating the Conservative candidate as opposed to voting for the party that they really wanted to vote for. And finally, if everybody's vote counted and held the same weight no matter how the rest of your neighbours voted, then there would be much higher voter turnout - guaranteed! Then, my fellow Canadians, we'd finally have true democracy in Canada.