Moose Jaw Forum

I do believe the NDP supports the closed party list of PR...

Closed Party List voting wherein you vote for a party rather than an individual. For example, in Ontario, with its 106 ridings, a single ballot would be printed for all voters. The ballot would list all candidates by party. Independents would be listed as if they are a party. What could be simpler? Just check off a party and the bureaucrats at Elections Canada would assign the seats according to the percentage of the vote. For example, if the Liberals got 25% of the vote they would get 25% or 26.5 seats. If the Communists got 0.9% they would get 0.954 seats. Because no one votes for a candidate, however, the MPs are selected by the party.

So how do the Liberals distribute these seats? Do they pick their favorite ridings to assign their candidates to as MP's? Does the least popular riding (remote/rural) end up with the Communist?

AV sounds like a more powerful voice for voters as it allows you not only to vote for the candidate(s) that you support, it also allows you to vote against the candidate(s) that you oppose. Right?

jay45 wrote:The problem I have with AV voting, is that a person who numbers the candidates thinks... well if my guy doesn't get in, then I would like to see candidate B get in , my 3rd being candidate C... you really don't want the other two as your MP... it could end up that the person you LEAST want to see as your MP get the nod... whereas with proportional respresentation, at least you could see a candidate that lost by only a few votes still get chosen to represent your party that you voted for... I would much rather see a worthy candidate go to Ottawa and someone's 3rd or 4th choice, a choice that you would not have made.

I took a look at it and see that AV voting was resoundly rejected by Britain so I would have to say that we are not going to see it here.
It looked very complicated and expensive to say the least.
If there is ever going to be any sort of change I can see it being PR which is cheaper and more balanced than AV was.
In time though if we do not make some sort of change and offer alternatives out there we will be like the US where there is really little excitement and a lot of voter apathy. It is a stagnating situation there with little room for debate and new ideas.