The Stephen Harper Conservatives won 39.6% of the popular vote in the 2011 election, which gave them 54% of the seats in the House of Commons and, essentially, absolute power to do whatever they want.
In British Columbia, it looks like, between the two of them, the BC Conservative Party and the Green Party will earn 25% of the popular vote in the upcoming provincial election.
Despite that level of support, it's looking like neither party will have voice in the legislature.
Does that sound "democratic" to anyone?
I know in B.C. we've had the debate about proportional representation (PR) before. In 2005 and 2009, the government held referendums on the issue and both times they were defeated.
But at some point, we have to realize that the current first-past-the-post system isn't working and maybe the reason voter turnout levels are dwindling across the country is because people don't think their votes matter.
There are many variations to proportional representation but they all basically work like this: Our MPs or MLAs would be elected in multi-member ridings instead of single-member ridings; and the number of seats that a party wins in would be proportional to the amount of its support among voters. For example, if the Tri-Cities had 10 seats and the Conservatives won 50% of the vote, they would receive five of the 10. If the NDP won 30% of the vote, they would get three seats; and if the Greens got 10% of the vote, they would win one seat.
Eighty-one countries have already adopted PR, including 21 in western Europe.
And we can tailor a system that works for Canada: Scotland, Wales and Germany, for example, have mixed systems whereby voters vote for their individual local representatives but also cast a separate second vote to elect regional MPs.
Now, my colleague opposite will argue that we may end up with a fractured parliament with many different parties. So, what he's saying is that politicians will have to act like grown-ups and co-operate? What a concept.
Proportional representation isn't a perfect system but it's better than what we have now and would get us closer to what we all call democracy.
