What is Proportional Representation?

I’ve gone off on a few rants about why Proportional Representation will fix all our problems, do our laundry, and even clean our windows. I’m not sure if it will make you breakfast in bed, however. In fact, it probably won’t. I’ll go on the record to say that. But, what is it?

We use a system called “first past the post”, aka winner takes all. It works like this. Canada is divided up in to over 300 “ridings”. Each riding is over 100 000 people big. So large cities like Calgary have several ridings in them, whereas small communities have several villages and townships in one riding. If your city has around 100 000 people in it, it’s likely it’s own riding, defined by the city limits.

In each riding you have at least 4 candidates (5 in most of Quebec): The Liberals, the Conservatives, the NDP, and the Green party (as well as the Bloc Quebecois in Quebec), and sometimes you may have an independent running (someone without any party affiliation). Lets make up an imaginary city called Votica. During a general election the citizens of Votica go down to the polls and vote. (Well, only about 60-70% of eligible voters.) Here’s the important part: Which ever candidate gets the most votes wins, and it doesn’t matter how many votes they get.

For example

Let’s say there is a party called the Omnia Vincit Party, or the OVP for short. They would win in this riding if they got a clear majority, like this:

OVP: 60%
Liberal: 12%
Conservative: 11%
NDP: 19%
Green: 8%

So the OVP wins the riding, and gets that vote. And the 40% of people who voted someone else get no say. Some could argue that the majority should rule, so this is okay. But this is not the only way elections come out. In my riding less than 50 percent of the people voted for the candidate that one. It was more like this:

OVP: 45%
Conservative: 40%
Liberal: 4%
NDP: 5%
Green: 6%

So, most of my city, or, in this case, the mythical city of Votica, did not vote for the candidate that won. Most do not want what this candidates stood for, but this candidates gets sent to Ottawa to speak for that city. This is something that is actually quote common. One last example:

OVP: 30%
NDP: 25%
Conservative: 20%
Liberal: 15%
Green: 10%

In this case, too, the OVP get all the say from that riding. A full vote in the Canadian Parliament. But only 30% of the community backed that candidate. 70% of the votes were wasted.

In fact, votes were wasted in each example. In the first example, 40% of the citizens lack actual representation. In the second example, 55% of the vote is wasted. And 70% is wasted in the last example. This happens across Canada. It also happens in the other 2 countries that don’t use proportional representation in their democracies. Yes, you read that right. Canada, the US, and the UK are the only 3 democracies in the world using this asinine system that is centuries old.

Everyone else has moved it. It’s time we joined them.

So, what is it?

Proportional representation means just that: every vote counts because you look at the over all percentage, and assign seats based on that. You are not left with parties getting more power than they should have. The Liberals ruled Canada during the 1990s with most of the power of Parliament. But they did have the confidence of most Canadians. In fact, typicaly only 40% of voters voted for the Liberals, but the liberals won a clear majority of the ridings. This is why I want another system. A better system. There are several ways to fix this.

• You can take votes for parties, and assign the seats (or voting power) in the Parliament by percentage. This would be a radically different system than we have now. This means that if the Green Party got 5 percent of the vote, they will be assigned 5 percent of the seats in the Parliament. The people who sit in those seats would be selected by the party, typically before the election, and the list would be published ahead of time.
• Or, you could vote the same way we do now, but add seats to fix the discrepancy. Consider the NDP. In the 2004 election the NDP got 15.7% of the vote, but only got 6.2% of the seats in Parliament. So we “add” seats to the NDP to give them the “proper” number of seats. This way, if you voted for the NDP, but didn’t elect your local candidate, your vote still gets counted, and the party can use that vote to put an unelected local candidates in Parliament to speak for those votes that would be wasted in our current system.
• Last is the mixed system. In this one you cast two votes. One for a local candidate, and one for a party. This way, you can vote for whatever party you think has the best stance on the issues, but also elect a local representative to speak for your local concerns.If you want, they can both be from the same party. So you could vote twice for the party you like. Or, you can vote for your party, but if the local candidate is not so hot, you can vote for someone else all together. Lastly, you can vote for the party you like, and against the candidate you don’t like. Using this system you have a bigger mix of options that you can employ. Parliament will be divided in half. The first half will be local candidates elected the old fashion way, and the second half will be seats filled by the party based on their votes in the popular election.

Different systems, but the out come is the same: less votes wasted. You never waste your entire vote.

Sources

• Fair Vote Canada – A advocacy organization for proportional representation – lots of great facts.
• Canadian Federal Election, 2004
• Canadian Federal Election, 2006