proportional representation

[Tony Yarusso]

FWIW, the system often proposed for Canada is very different than the
proportional representation used in eg. Sweden and more like that of
Germany and New Zealand, possibly with some elements from Australia.
The idea of a strict party vote doesn't appeal to most Canadians, and
being a large (regionally fractious) country it doesn't make much
sense.  So, a brief summary of a more likely alternative:  Mixed
Member Proportional Representation with Single Transferable Vote for
local constituency seats.

The ballot would have two parts.  On the first part, you would see a
list of local people running for your riding, as you have now.  In the
simple form (proposed by the Law Commission of Canada's report), this
would work exactly the same as now, with a First Past the Post system.
 If the addition of STV is used, you would rank these candidates in
order of preference.  When votes were counted, if no candidate had
more than 50% of the votes, the candidate with the fewest votes as #1
would be dropped and an "instant runoff" would ensue, counting other
ballots the same way and the ones for this candidate using their #2
choice, repeating until someone emerged with more than 50% support.

The second part of the ballot would be for a party.  Here you would
vote for the party of your preference, with one mark, and it would not
need to be the same as the party affiliation of the candidate you
ranked #1 on the first part.

STV on the first part of the ballot would go a long way towards making
the outcome of local riding seats better reflect the will of voters,
eliminating the "spoiler effect".  However, there would still be some
discrepancy between the seat results from that and the popular vote.
The second part of the ballot therefore would be used to apportion a
smaller number of "top-up" seats to make the final result match the
popular vote as closely as possible.

This results in a Parliament that accurately reflects the will of the
people, while still maintaining the concept of local riding
representatives and electoral accountability.  It also makes sure that
it is still possible for both independent candidates in a local riding
and small parties nationwide to get a fair shot.  IMO, this would be a
rather nice balance of the pros of each system all around.

 - Tony