Voting systems

Re: Casting ballots, Sept. 17 The letter writer has ably outlined the disadvantages of proportional representation, but then assumes that a ranked ballot system represents electoral perfection. I beg to differ.

Ranked balloting allows voters to specify not only their first choice of candidate, but also their second, third, and so on, with these secondary choices being brought into play if there is no clear winner with 50 per cent or more of the vote.

Such a system automatically favours centrist parties. Imagine a riding in which there are Conservative, Liberal and NDP candidates. Conservative voters are unlikely to choose the NDP candidate as their second choice, and similarly NDP voters are unlikely to choose the Conservative. Consequently, the Liberals, as the centrist party, will gather the bulk of the second-choice votes, which will significantly increase their overall seat count.

Another problem with ranked balloting is that the process is opaque. The winner in any particular riding will be whomsoever the electoral computer declares to be the winner, but it may not be obvious how this has occurred.

There is no such thing as a perfect, unbiased voting system. However, experience suggests that what most voters want is a system that is simple and transparent, that generally provides majority governments, and lets voters choose who will represent them in Parliament. First-past-the-post voting, for all its faults, does this.

Roger Graves, North Gower, Ont.