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How do we get electoral reform done federally and provincially? (vargar.org)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/canada@lemmy.ca
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We desperately need proportional representation at the federal and provincial levels of government. What can we do to get it passed?

From what I understand, a coalition between the Liberals and the NDP (and more parties if the libs have that poor of a performance), where the Liberals aren't really strong electorally speaking is probably how we would get PR federally (right?).

How do we do it provincially though? Ontario seems to be moving towards that direction, with opinion polls being in favor of PR, and the Liberals and the NDP being wiped out due to a lack of PR.

What about the other provinces? Eby's being a little bitch in BC about this. Same goes with the Alberta NDP. There is no strong third party with enough leverage in either of these provinces to ram this demand through using a coalition. Not so familiar with the politics of other provinces and territories, so no idea what the status there looks like.

What do you think we should do instead? Fairvote's "email a sternly worded letter to your MP/MLA" sounds woefully ineffective.

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[–] [S] 3 points 3 months ago (1 child)

Proportional representation is a bad idea, and in every case where it's been examined on a provincial level when the voters take a long hard look they walk away from it

Won't present the case for PR, as I don't think I can make a better case than the ones already presented by other people. Don't have the energy for it.

As for public support, 68% support it nationally according to an EKOS poll conducted in 2025.

I know this isn't a provincial poll as you stated, but still. Also, if other important bills can pass without majority support of the electorate, why not PR? If we agree that the current FPTP system is fair, then why can't reform passed through the same system be considered "fair"?

Would be better for sure to look at the reasons why you want it

  • I don't to be forced to vote strategically.
  • I don't want to be totally unrepresented in parliament and my LA.
  • I don't want a government that DOES NOT have majority support of the electorate passing laws as if it has majority support.

And you had a coalition between the liberals and NDP for 4 years, and that didn't help.

True, sadly. It is also true that the NDP wasn't that strong, and the Liberals weren't that weak.

A precondition for this is a weak liberals, where an annoying snap election ends up drawing votes to the CPC or the NDP from the Liberals. If it's the other way round, where NDP votes go to the libs, then electoral reform ain't happening.

there's been nothing to stop someone in the future from going back to first past the post

Not true. It is very very difficult for a single party to get a total majority in PR. No junior coalition partner would be stupid to roll back to FPTP.

Once PR happens, it would be very very difficult to get it rolled back.

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  • [–] -2 points 3 months ago

    PR is not a good method and as I've said every single time it gets a solid look by the people it gets turned down. What has it been, four or five referendums now? 6?

    It's not popular the moment people give it some real thought. And obviously the people of the provinces make up Canada. Even Ontario, our largest province, shot the idea down

    As far as your reasoning goes as to why you want it I can understand that and I'm not saying it's invalid. But there are other ways to achieve that and to be honest proportional representation will achieve the opposite in some of those cases Proportional representation means you have no local representative and you will be totally unrepresented in parliament directly. Furthermore the Idea of pR is to create fewer majorities. Which means that you never have a government that has majority support. It's a coalition of people who don't have majority support and didn't run on a unified platform.

    So by it's very nature it doesn't do what you want it to do. There are other ways to tackle some of those problems that would be better.

    As to the liberals the liberals were plenty weak. The results are often however not what you thought they would be. Very often these coalitions become about personal power and achieve wealth for their members but don't do much for Canada or the country they serve. Jack meet his pension and a bunch of business contacts, he will be very wealthy. Justin is making tens of millions of dollars with the connections he laid. Both left Canada in a mess. That is proportional representation and it's core

    And I hate to break it to you but it's actually not that hard to get a majority under PR. It happens less frequently but it does happen and worse you're thinking that only one party would want to go back to first pass the post. But chances are that's not true. The liberals and conservatives could easily look at moving back to a first past the post if they don't like sharing power with people like the NDP. Or did you forget about that?

    Even the block might very well be happy to work with a minority government leader to bring back first past the post considering that proportional representation would probably hurt them the most

    It would be very easy for it to be rolled back, so you're not really changing anything

    In short PR does not do what you want it to, and people realize that when they're forced to take a long hard look at it and make a choice. Your concerns are valid but there are other ways to tackle them. PR has been proposed on a provincial level numerous numerous times and is always shot down. It will be wiser to look at reforms that make sense and can be sold to the public

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