Fair Vote Canada 🗳️🍁 (@fairvote.ca)
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What’s more chilling than Trump’s presidency? The fact that we use the same system that just handed him total control. First-past-the-post fuels a hyper-partisan two-party system. If we want to protect democracy in Canada, we need proportional representation. #cdnpoli

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/40140681

Fair Vote Canada on Bluesky

What’s more chilling than Trump’s presidency? The fact that we use the same system that just handed him total control.

First-past-the-post fuels a hyper-partisan two-party system.

If we want to protect democracy in Canada, we need proportional representation.

#cdnpoli

  • shirro@aussie.zoneEnglish
    13·
    2 days ago

    Good idea but also a gross oversimplification.

    You can’t compare a parliamentary democracy with a presidential republic whatever the voting system. The president is an elected tyrant. It’s a miracle one hasn’t gone rogue previously.

    A prime minister is a chairperson who only serves with the confidence of their party. In the UK and Australia PMs are routinely knifed by their own parties. Additionally the government needs to win confidence votes to govern.

    Australia has a proportional upper house with some real teeth. They can bring a government down. But New Zealand has a unicameral proportional lower house. Optimised for different things. Many people say NZ is better but they haven’t had a big constitutional crisis so who knows. NZ only gets labour or national governments despite proportional representation.

    • AlolanVulpix@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      6·
      3 days ago

      Good idea but also a gross oversimplification.

      In a microblogging platform, there’s only so much content you can write. And even Lemmy’s post titles are limited to 200 characters.

      You can’t compare a parliamentary democracy with a presidential republic whatever the voting system.

      Of course the systems are different, however, the core of both Canada’s and the US’s electoral system is winner-take-all (e.g, FPTP).

      Read more about how Canada is trending towards a two party system.

      • shirro@aussie.zoneEnglish
        41·
        2 days ago

        It is a great idea. Strike while the iron is hot.

        I didn’t realize Canada’s electoral system was so outdated. I assumed you would have a popularly elected upper house and if not proportional at least instant runoff/rcv/preferential for your lower house.

        We didn’t want to give up local representation in Australia so we stuck with single member electorates but preferential voting. It is fairer to voters than FPTP but still results in a two party lower house that doesn’t reflect the actual percentages of votes cast for parties so the senate is more powerful that UK or Canada to offset. We could do a lot better. NZ follows a more German model that compensates popular parties that didn’t win seats. Not sure how I feel about that. The Greens would end up with 13% of lower house seats here instead of approximately 0 but chances are we could see parties like our own One Nation or the German AfD grow in influence as well. Tasmania has had proportional voting for their state lower house for over a century as does our capital territory.

        Edit: the web site is very informative and and the fact checker addresses my extremist party fear well.

        • AlolanVulpix@lemmy.caOPEnglish
          3·
          2 days ago

          We didn’t want to give up local representation in Australia

          Did you know there’s actually a way to maintain full local representation, while still meeting the criteria of proportional representation?

          It’s called single transferable vote (STV).

          • shirro@aussie.zoneEnglish
            3·
            2 days ago

            That is how Tasmania has worked for over a century. They call it Hare-Clarke but it is a form of STV. They also use it in the Australian Capital Territory.

            Mixed member might be more suitable nationally here. I have mixed feelings about the example in NZ. Anything is better than FPTP which should only be in history books. Even ranked choice/preferential with what you already have is an incremental improvement if that is all you can get.