Electoral Reform

[Chaerophon]

I'm glad they're going ahead with this.

Alberta could sure use something like that. A majority of people *didn't* vote for the Tories last election, but yet the opposition is an almost laughable minority of barely 25%. FPTP skews the numbers dramatically, almost halving the strength of the opposition. And those numbers are much better than the previous legislature, where the opposition did slightly worse on election day, but dramatically worse in result.

-Jester

Alan Cairns wrote an interesting article in the '60s or '70's about the effects of FPTP on federal politics. His conclusion was that it greatly exaggerates regional tensions - e.g. the Liberals consistently gain 25% support in Alberta, and yet the province is thought of as strongly "anti-Liberal". Most experts agree that, over time, a more proportional system would likely lead to some softening of the perception that, for example, Western interests are entirely "distinct" from those of central Canadians. The effects of the electoral system on a country's political sociology are so much greater than most people realize. We all take our method of voting for granted, but it really does help to shape the way that we look at our fellow citizens.