The Council of Canadians
We have a new majority government – a “majority” that was won with only 39.5% of the vote. When we take into account that only 68% of people voted, the picture becomes even worse. It means that the “majority” was achieved with only 26.86%. What happens to the voices of the 73% of the people who did not vote for the government?
Our voting system, First Past The Post (FPTP), is a “Winner Takes All” system. The winner gets 100% of the power and the majority of us, 73%, are left on the sidelines. To be able to ignore 73% of the people seems unfair.
The winner can end up acting like a bully, lording their ideology over the rest of us:
- the winner gets to set the agenda
- the winner gets to limit the debate
- the winner does not have to listen to alternative ideas
- the winner only has to please its base
Winner takes all is inefficient and expensive: one government implements one set of policies only to have the next government change course and reverse policies. One government wants to eliminate home mail delivery; the next government wants to reinstate it. One government wants to spend almost $50 billion to buy warplanes; the next government wants to re-evaluate the entire process. All of this costs us money and wastes time. Winner takes all results in lousy governments.
Look at what we got when there were minority governments – the opposite of winner takes all. We got the Canada Pension Plan, Unemployment Insurance and Health Care.
If a party were to win all the votes then sure, it makes sense that they would have all the power. The argument is that power has some relationship to the amount of popular support. But when a party wins a measly 26.86% of the potential votes, why does that party get 100% of the power?
FPTP with two parties may have worked well during Confederation times but today it gives us a government that can rule by excluding the majority. That’s nuts. What we have is broken. We must fix it.
Want to get involved?
Council of Canadians- The Mississippi Mills Chapter
http://canadians.org/democracy
If you would like to join a group of local people who are asking that Prime Minister Trudeau keep his promise that the 2015 election would be the last federal election under the First-Past-the-Post electoral system, our next full meeting is March 22, at the Mills Community Support (67 Industrial Drive, Almonte) at 7:00 pm. If you would like to get involved in our Proportional Representation group sooner, our next meeting is March 9th at the Mills Community Support at 7pm.
Fair Vote Canada
http://campaign2015.fairvote.ca
Active Campaign
Let’s Make 2015 the Last Unfair Election
Democracy Watch
Lead Now
Active Campaign
Are You In On Voting Reform?
