Wednesday, November 30, 2005

THEY SAID NO!

Islanders Reject Proportional Representation

And thank God for it. As I've said before I would like to see a change to the electoral system in Canada, but every PR system I've heard has major flaws, that could make things even worse than they currently are.

In the end the only ones who truly deeply support PR are the fringe parties who stand to gain from it such as the NDP, the Greens, etc.

4 comments:

RP. said...

Actually, the system would've helped the major parties more than the fringe parties. It's happened before that the 2nd place party would receive something like 45% of the vote and only get 1 seat (happens quite often here, actually). In that event, most of the top up seats would have gone to the 2nd place party.

Every system has its flaws, including FPTP. A compromise system would've had the best of both worlds. It was a phony plebiscite anyway, so the issue is far from dead. I suspect, and hope, that the Liberals here will hammer Binns 9 ways from Sunday for the way this travesty was carried out.

RP. said...

Actually, the system would've helped the major parties more than the fringe parties. It's happened before that the 2nd place party would receive something like 45% of the vote and only get 1 seat (happens quite often here, actually). In that event, most of the top up seats would have gone to the 2nd place party.

Every system has its flaws, including FPTP. A compromise system would've had the best of both worlds. It was a phony plebiscite anyway, so the issue is far from dead. I suspect, and hope, that the Liberals here will hammer Binns 9 ways from Sunday for the way this travesty was carried out.

Jason said...

Even the mainstream media doesn't refer to the NDP as a "fringe party" because they're not. In the 1984 election they won nearly as many seats as the Liberals (30 to the Liberals 40). They usually get official party status and between 10-20% of the vote. Just because you can't command a majority doesn't make you a fringe party. That term is used for parties that can't win a single seat and/or single-issue parties.

RP. said...

Good call Jason, I can't believe I stepped in that.