| The Bloc Québécois won 35 more seats than the NDP in the June 28 election, despite the fact that the NDP won more votes across the country.
And both the Liberal and Conservative parties won a higher percentage of seats than their percentage of the popular vote.
Such skewed election results and another record low voter turnout (according to preliminary voter turnout results, 60.5 per cent of Canadians voted, down from 64.1 per cent in 2000), demonstrates once again the need for proportional representation, says Alfredo Louro, president of the Calgary chapter of Fair Vote Canada.
Groups such as Fair Vote Canada argue that in Canada’s current first-past-the-post system, the popular vote is often not reflected in the number of seats a party wins. For example, the NDP received 15.7 per cent of the popular vote in this election but won only 6.2 per cent of the seats, whereas the BQ received 12.4 per cent of the popular vote but won 17. 5 per cent of the seats. Under a system of proportional representation, parties would receive seats based on the percentage of popular vote they received across the country.
Louro says if you add up the votes for candidates that didn’t win across the country, about 41 per cent of the votes cast "did not count."
"I think this is a major reason why voter turnout is so low," says Louro. "People think ‘If my candidate doesn’t stand any chance of winning, why vote?’"
Our first-past-the-post system often rewards regional parties, including the separatist BQ, at the expense of more national parties like the NDP, says Louro.
Louro says he’s excited at the prospect of NDP leader Jack Layton pushing for proportional representation in the newly formed Parliament. Layton stated during the election campaign that his support for a minority Liberal government would be contingent on the Liberals agreeing to a referendum on proportional representation.
However, University of Calgary political science professor Barry Cooper predicts that nothing will change under the new Liberal minority government."You can’t do it in the next 18 months. It won’t happen," he says. "It’s basically a hare-brained idea (Layton) will use to show the NDP was discriminated against."
He says the main problem with proportional representation is that communities would lose local representation through a locally elected MP. Instead parties would receive seats based on their percentage of votes across the country.
"There are communities. There are differences. There are regions," says Cooper. "It would represent the individual preference of an aggregate population, but by doing that it ignores communities of interest or regionalism."
There are several different forms of proportional representation, including 100 per cent proportional representation and a mixed system. In a mixed system, some MPs are elected through proportional representation but others are elected through Canada’s current system in specific ridings. Fair Group Canada believes some form of proportional representation is necessary but it isn't pushing for a system of 100 per cent proportional representation.
Meanwhile, NDP spokesperson Ian Capstick says the recent election results "definitely indicate that there’s a problem with the current system."
He says proportional representation "will be an issue at the forefront of the (NDP) agenda."
In 2003, the NDP tried to pass a motion in the House of Commons calling for a referendum on electoral reform. The motion was supported by both the BQ and the Canadian Alliance, but was voted down by the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties. Meanwhile the Green party, which has never successfully elected an MP to Parliament, has been advocating proportional representation for years.
Several provinces in Canada, including Ontario, New Brunswick, B.C. and P.E.I., are at various stages of studying electoral reform. B.C. has set up a citizen’s assembly that will recommend whether to keep the current first-past-the-post system or change it. Then B.C. citizens will have a chance to vote on the recommendation in a referendum.
Liberal party spokesperson Peter Graham says Prime Minister Paul Martin will be closely watching provincial initiatives on electoral reform. However, he says it’s too early to comment on whether Martin will support electoral reform nationally.
"We’ll watch and see what the provinces are doing," says Graham. "Right now, I don’t think the priority of Canadians is proportional representation." |
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