Remember, back when the NDP had a huge increase in popular support in the 1980's but it didn't translate into seats? They called for PR so things would be fair. Of course, if I recall correctly, that was the year the Mulroney Tories gained a huge majority in the House and took over half the vote, rendering such arguments moot.
There were even some rumblings about PR by the NDP prior to this election. One wonders where they stand on that now, with 77% of the Quebec seats taken with less than half the popular vote. I'm going out on a limb and saying that PR isn't so important to the NDP knowing that they don't need to turn too many more voters in their direction to gain minority or possibly majority government status.
The one thing that won't change is that someone will call for PR to make things fair for the people. Naturally, I mean the Green party. They are the ones making the most noise about it, so you would think they would have the best plan. It's not spelled out in the comprehensive platform. I really would hope that for all the talk, they would put a proposal out there. If they aren't going to spell out the glory of it, then I will spell out the pitfalls.
No Local MP
You will be voting for a party and your MP may well not be local. Heck, you won't really have an MP. You will be voting to fill a chair. Remember, it doesn't matter if your ersatz riding votes 50%+1 in favour of a specific party because all the votes go into a giant bin. Your "Chosen" representative might very well be someone who does not reflect the values of your neighbourhood.
I don't know, but someone who is picked for me as opposed to someone who was picked by me seems the antithesis of democracy. I'm going to assume that this is going to be the way of things because no concrete suggestions have come forward from the pro-PR crowd.
Who Gets A Seat?
There are 308 seats now, and that's probably going to increase after the census. That's a whole bunch of seats to fill. We already know that the Tories, under PR would get 40%, the NDP would get 30% and the Liberals would get 20%, leaving 10% of the seats. We'll just say that 31 seats are remaining. 6% of the vote went to the Bloc, So 18 seats gone. 13 seats left. That must mean the Greens get official party status HUZZAH!
Sounds fine, for now. Everyone gets a seat and representation. Keep in mind that all of the bigger parties, are big tent parties. The Bloc, in its prime, was a HUGE tent with a single issue and it attracted all manner of loons. The NDP is now a big tent. The CPC is an amalgam of competing ideals as to what conservative even means. The Liberals draw from a pretty diverse group who like them for social values and fiscal policies.
Under Proportional Representation (once again, I'm guessing on this) anyone who can snag 4% of the vote gets official party status. How long until fringe parties, truly fringe parties, begin to make inroads? One election cycle. There's no need for national media campaigns. You just need 400,000 to vote for a Western Separatist or Marxist party. How hard would that be? Not very if you decide to implement a system that normalizes the fringe.
What these people who call for Proportional Representation don't understand is why our system is the way it is and how it supposed to work. They have also given no thoughts to the unintended consequences. That's really about right, though. Calls for PR are made by self serving people who are unable to succeed according to the rules.
I'm not opposed to electioral reform. I'm opposed to reforms designed to normalize the fringe. If there was a call for runoff elections for anyone not getting over 50% of the vote, then fine. Triple E Senate or elected GG would be fine by me. You can leave the current system for MP's alone. I like knowing who my guy is and how he got there.
Pure Democracy has been described as Mob Rule. And that's a pretty apt description. Our system is designed so that a plurality of votes can comfortably govern. If your party cannot get the required amount of votes per riding, you don't get seats. It says that if your party can't do that, it doesn't represent those ~100,000 people.
If members of certain parties are annoyed that they can't break through then it might just be that the system is working properly. Perhaps they should consider why they are failing to connect. The system worked for all kinds of upstart parties in the past; Why not yours?
Update:
Sandy at Crux of the Matter has some interesting analysis on the UK rejection of PR that dovetails well with this.
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