Ducasse | Imagination

Revitalizing Public and Political Space
PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

Several Problems

Like all Western countries, Canada calls itself a democracy. Yet, representative democracy takes a concrete form through the specific electoral system that is used. It is this system that aggregates the votes of citizens. The electoral system is the "midwife" that gives birth to governments.

Canadian citizens are too often ready to accept our current electoral system and simply cannot imagine that we could do things differently. In fact, the Canadian electoral system, based on the first-past-the-post model, is outdated. This model is only used in a few countries, such as the United States, Great Britain and India. All the other Western countries, among others, use one form or another of proportional representation.

Our current electoral system fails to meet our democratic ideals, principally because it does not necessarily translate votes received into representation (seats) in Parliament. For all intents and purposes, many votes do no count and are thus lost. This happens when people vote for parties that do not have enough support to win in a particular riding.

As well, the existing system over-represents some parties while systematically working against others. On the one hand, the leading party tends to acquire a greater share of seats than its percentage of the vote: we can therefore speak of a "winner's premium." In the last 24 Canadian elections, only three majority governments were elected with a majority of the votes cast. On the other hand, the system systematically disfavours the smallest parties.

In addition, our current electoral system favours strategic voting, in the sense of people refraining from voting for their preferred candidate in order to support a candidate with a better chance of beating the candidate they oppose. This is caused by a system that prevents voters from expressing their choice in terms of preferences (first choice, second choice, etc.).

Finally, in the Canadian context, our current electoral system increases regionalism and hurts the elaboration of a truly pan-Canadian vision both within the government and within parties. The emergence of regional blocs (with the Bloc Québécois in Québec, the Alliance in the West and the Liberal Party in Ontario) is a consequence of the first-past-the-post model.

Some Solutions

We will create a radical change in our electoral system. We will propose an electoral system based on the following three principles:

1) Proportional representation, meaning a system where the percentage of seats in Parliament reflects the percentage of votes won in the general election;

2) Preferential voting (or the transferable ballot), meaning a system where voters can express their preferences between parties;

3) Regional representation, in the sense of maintaining a territorial basis for political representation, in keeping with Canadian culture and the regional reality of Canada (between provinces and within them).

A detailed presentation of what we propose is found further below.

During a first mandate, our government will propose a specific model of electoral reform and will consult widely around it. The new electoral system will be in place for the next election.

A system of proportional representation nevertheless tends to create coalition governments and thus a less stable party system. Changes will therefore have to be made within our political institutions in order to favour governmental stability. Various measures can be examined during the consultations. Some countries like Germany have interesting practices worth studying in this regard.

Some details

Mechanism proposed for the Proportional-regional system of preferential voting:

The country will be divided into a number of "super-ridings" on a regional basis (in other words, ridings with several seats). These ridings will have between 3 and 10 seats (representatives);
Political parties will be responsible for establishing candidate lists, with a hierarchy (first on the list, second, third, etc.);
The number of seats per super-riding will determine the threshold required to elect a candidate (ex. in a riding with 8 representatives, the threshold would be 12.5%);
Voters would receive a ballot – with the name of the parties and of the candidates – and would have to pick their first and second choices;
During the vote count, the first choice votes will be counted and the seats will be distributed according to the thresholds attained (e.g. a party with 25% of the vote would have two seats in an eight seat riding);
The parties with the lowest number of votes would then be eliminated and their residual votes (the percentage of the vote that did not allow the election of an additional representative) would then be distributed according to their second choice;
The process would proceed until all seats are attributed.

This system naturally avoids what is often feared about proportional representation, namely the continual multiplication of small parties, since these parties must still have a significant percentage of votes in order to win representation.

This system clearly: allows for more proportionality, ensures that no vote is lost, and creates a new regional dynamic.