Our new government has pledged to replace first-past-the-post elections before Canada’s next election in 2019. But I haven’t heard anything about the multi-party committee that was promised to be created. If they don’t get started soon, they won’t be able to fulfil their pledge.
Some groups are promoting what they call proportional representation.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines proportional representation as “an electoral system in which parties gain seats in proportion to the number of votes cast for them.” This definition means that a party that gets five per cent of the total number of votes is entitled to 16 seats in Parliament (five per cent of 338 seats). But as far as I can tell, not a single organization in Canada is promoting a voting system in accord with that definition.
Under proportional representation, it is unlikely that any political party in Canada would get a majority of votes, and two or more parties would have to form a coalition (and fight among themselves as to who will be prime minister) in order to have a majority of seats in Parliament.
Perhaps the system should include a selection of the prime minister by a majority of MPs, similar to the selection the Speaker of the House of Commons. This would make it obvious that the prime minister is responsible to Parliament and would make it easier for a majority of the MPs to change the prime minister without calling an election.
In the meantime, I wish people would stop creating their own definitions of proportional representation. Robert Radford
Duncan
