Tuesday, September 28, 2010

First Past The Post

Yesterday's Conservative trouncing of the Liberal Party in New Brunswick has some people complaining that the Tories have more seats than they deserve. They collected nearly half of all votes cast and won 75% of the seats in the legislature. This is being decried as a "schmoozle", and as an example of why we supposedly need proportional representation. What the article at the Globe and Mail does not mention is that proportional representation significantly reduces the probability that any party wins a majority government. Under the British parliamentary system, minority governments are generally dysfunctional, as we know all too well here in Canada. The Brits and the Aussies call it "hung parliament".  The constant threat of an election undermines our entire political system.

This Fair Vote Canada group can't understand why Canadians aren't mad as hell and marching in the streets to right this perceived wrong. Why aren't more Canadians demanding proportional representation? Because we are sick and tired of hung parliament. The machinations of our legislative branch operate more effectively in majority governments.

8 comments:

  1. Isn't it funny how these PR proponents only pipe up when "their team" is at the smelly end of FPTP. I don't recall any outrage at the death of democracy as we know it when in the previous NB election the Libs won with a lower % of the popular vote than the Conservatives had.

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  2. The Left don't like with FPTP works against them.

    Frank McKenna won all the seats in NB with 60% and I heard crickets?

    To be spider on the wall in the Liberal war room, would have been fun.

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  3. William in Ajax said...
    If you want to see 90% to 95% voter turnout,
    put a "non of the above" box on all ballots, and make it legally binding!
    No legislative change allowed until the next election.

    I don't know how to actually make it work, but I'm sure it can.

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  4. "Isn't it funny how these PR proponents only pipe up when "their team" is at the smelly end of FPTP."

    Ditto; I didn't hear squat when that weasel Chretien won a majority with only 37% of the popular vote, and then immediately broke his major election promise ("the GST is gone") and slipped in the long-gun registry without so much as a WORD about it ahead of the election.

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  5. Funny how Liberals were crowing about the Graham win just a few years ago, and today, you have to dig for any article about the Conservative win. Very quiet on the MSM front. Expect the same when Obama loses his majorities.

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  6. We really can't expect anything but this sort of "me,me,me" guff from these glib ass-wipes.

    These self centered twits think that realty orbits around them and this is another example of such.

    Give these characters half a chance and they’re sure to destroy Canada.

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  7. Phony majority, single party monopoly government inevitably breeds arrogance and corruption, or haven't you noticed? Minority/coalition government and proportional voting are the norm in almost all developed countries, and have been for most of the last century.

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  8. Wayne says "Minority/coalition government and proportional voting are the norm in almost all developed countries".

    Not in the British system. Perhaps we should make our government more like Germany?

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