Saturday, March 6, 2010

Who Needs Parliamentary Reform?

Maybe Canada does! In the 2008 election the Bloc Que. received 1.3 million votes and won 50 Parliamentary seats. The Green Party received close to 1 million votes and won...0 (zero!) seats.

To stress the point, the lists below compare seats received, according to the system of First Past The Post, i.e. "winner takes all fantasyland" with what would happen if "Rep by Pop" (remember that expression in Canadian history?) were used instead.
                             FPTP            Rep by Pop
Conservative          143                 117
Liberal                     76                   81
NDP                          37                  57
Bloc                          50                  28
Greens                       0                   23
Not hard to imagine why voters are hesitant to turn out on election days, is it? Their votes don't count. They are not represented. Why bother? This has to change!

2 comments:

  1. I agree. It makes perfect sense but in politics rationality has never been considered a virtue.
    Bill V.

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