I am going to preface this by saying that this was shared with me by a friend and I am still trying to get my head wrapped around it. I am not an expert or even well read on the subject but do believe that the voting systems in Canada need to change. I post in the interest of building the discussion in this community.
<Quote> I like single transferrable vote (STV), but it’s unlikely to catch on because it needs number crunching in the backend to apportion the excess votes to (hopefully) improve proportionality. I can see it being accused of corruption by the fact and critical-thinking challenged demographic.
Baden-Württemberg solves that by saying that every riding has two members, one who wins the popular vote, and one who is selected from the runners-up in a manner that best enhances proportionality, but still focuses on the high vote earners.
Mixed member proportional representation (MMR) is too easily gamed by parties to embed unelectable party hacks/loyalists (as experienced in NZ). </Quote>
Hi, I believe we’ve had a short chat before.
Your arguments, while I acknowledge them to be valid, are not something that I believe should be addressed by an electoral system.
Why do you think that we have the right to deny, say, a gun freedom advocacy group, for running for office, as much as their taking of the office could be a scary one? If you could give a reason why, how does that prevent someone else to declare that climate advocacy groups shouldn’t run for office, and try to give some reason that sounds sufficiently legitimate to enough people? And what comes next?
The guardrails that you speak of work to shut people off. Is that how a democracy should work?
If an electorate is that concerned with gun freedom, and think that it’s more important than issues such as a dilapidated public infrastructure, then sure, they can vote for whichever party that will support gun freedom, and that party will have a better chance at winning, assuming a healthy voter turnout. This applies to both winner-takes-all systems and PR systems.
But gun freedom is likely not the only issue people have in mind. The gun freedom party can’t just stay as politicians over that one issue. How would they handle foreign relations? What about our national debt? No single issue platform can give us answer to every one of those larger problems.
So I say let these people speak their minds. If enough people actually support them and they have enough support to even form government, then such is the reality of what your nation cares about, and the numbers tell you that.
Or perhaps do you not believe that Canadians are inherently good and reasonable people? Perhaps you think education has really failed this country that people can’t think sufficiently well for themselves? I’m not sure where this issue with, say, religious parties trying to voice their opinions on how they think things should be run, is coming from.
I don’t suggest that one issue parties would form government. I do suggest however that a one issue party would be part of a coalition and would eventually want their one issue addressed. If a coalition government wanted the votes for an issue they really felt important, they may concede to other issues that they would not otherwise entertain. I know you will say, rightly, that this is what democracy and working with others is all about. My complaint is that it simplifies what governing an entire country entails. I feel it invalidates governance when myopic views are allowed to prevail and striving for one issue can eliminate proper consideration of another for the simple desire to get that one issue passed. I feel this contributes to allowing an ignorant electorate to treat the only thing the care about as a zero sum game where no matter what else is allowed to happen, at least they get their way. I know I overplay this narrative and simplify my concerns but the underlying premise is still valid. To not strive for a more informed electorate and a more broad appreciation of cause and effect does no one any favours.
If a single issue is enough to make people put their vote into, why wouldn’t a larger party simply make that promise themselves, as long as it still somewhat aligns with their party goals, or is not in the way of their goals, and eat the single-issue platform’s pie?
And if anything, we already have single-issue politics, right within our FPTP system, and I don’t see why this wouldn’t happen under ranked ballots or instant runoff as well. Instead of forming a party, they lobby, and whichever party adopts their stance will win their votes, along with whoever else they can influence. There already is a subset of the electorate that are geared into thinking that way.
I don’t think there’s a good solution to mitigating single-issue politics, perhaps other than good education about our governments and institutions. It certainly isn’t solved under PR, and, as you said, could possibly lead to the proliferation of small single issue parties (though I believe larger parties will absorb their vote by promising the same while offering more), and it certainly exists even today under FPTP, just not as a party but a lobby group, and it will no doubt exist similarly as a lobby group in other winner-takes-all system.
You’re absolutely right about single issues being absorbed, the most prevalent being run rights and abortion in the us. I think I lean much more on the side of education and civic engagement you mentioned. Not easy to shove that down anybody’s throat. The moment you try to introduce a larger extent of that you’ll get the “brainwashing our kids” crowd crying fowl, even though they’re right. My solutions to these problems aren’t well received or practical given the current state. While I understand your objections and am willing to throw caution to the wind I don’t think a change to PR will really be of consequence.