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Canadian voters deserve better system

The results of the 2019 federal election have once again showcased, in spades, the many failings of our archaic, outdated electoral voting system: first-past-the-post (FPTP).
19132010_web1_PQN-Letters

The results of the 2019 federal election have once again showcased, in spades, the many failings of our archaic, outdated electoral voting system: first-past-the-post (FPTP).

A system which Justin Trudeau and the Liberals promised to replace before the 2019 election and later shamefully, cynically, reneged on; in part, because they couldn’t get support for the system of their choosing: a ranked-ballot system. A ranked-ballot format is only slightly more fair to the voters than our current FPTP, which isn’t saying much. It also would have strongly favoured the election of Liberal governments.

The seat count results of this election are a travesty, a betrayal of the electors and democracy – not indicative at all of how this country voted. Let’s review the current party results, in both seats and vote percentages:

Liberals 157 (33.1%), Conservatives 121 (34.4%), BQ 32 (7.7 %), NDP 24 (15.9%), Green 3 (6.6%), PPC 0 (1.6%).

Under Proportional Representation (PR), the system recommended by the HoC Special Committee on Electoral Reform in 2017, the seat distribution would have looked something like this:

Liberals 116, Conservatives 117, BQ 26, NDP 57, Green 22, PPC 0 (received less than 5% of the vote).

Much more representative of the vote percentages, i.e. how people voted.

FPTP has cheated voters in every province of this country by throwing whole segments of votes in the trash. This has resulted in a skewed perception of how we voted, has trampled voter diversity, exaggerated our differences, exacerbated polarization, and fostered disillusionment, instability, uncertainty, and animosity; and given the Liberals a mandate to govern with only 33% of the popular vote.

Canadian voters deserve better.

Murray Chantler

Qualicum Beach