Voting system doesn’t meet everyone’s needs
Many people are apparently happy with the current first-past-the-post voting system and that’s OK. What’s not OK is the expectation that, because they feel the current system meets their needs, we should ignore the fact that it fails to meet the needs of a very large number of other citizens.
The main electoral reform issue is one of fairness, effectiveness and equality of representation, the very same issue that drove the Canadian government to stop denying women the right to vote. I wonder how sympathetic people today would have been to a man arguing in 1917 that because his voting needs were being met there was no need to change the voting rules to accommodate women.
In ancient times, when first past the post began to be used, citizens’ collective interests were primarily dictated by their shared stake in matters that were local in nature so it seemed natural that those interests should best be represented in Parliament by an individual with local knowledge and perspective. In the modern world, many -- if not most -- of our collective interests arise from our stakes in matters of national and even international scope (e.g. the national economy, international trade, the environment and climate change). Like it or not those matters are not dealt with by individual MPs but by political parties and national governments formed by those parties. Unfortunately, our current voting system gives us no ability beyond our local riding to choose which party represents us.
It is no longer sufficient that by majority vote we can select an individual MP qualified to represent our local interests. All citizens also need an equal and effective means to be able to select the party that they feel is best qualified to represent their interests on national and global matters. We need a voting system that not only allows us to participate in a majority vote to decide our local MP but also provides all eligible voters an equal and effective ability to help their favourite party win seats and power in Parliament. The latter is what we mean by “make every vote count.” If we all had that ability, proportional representation would come about as a natural and inevitable consequence.
Notwithstanding Canada’s much admired democracy, it exists in spite of, not because of, our outdated voting system. Abandoning electoral reform would mean continuing to deny most citizens an effective vote. Rob Williams Cherry Valley