How do we measure stable governments?
As the Star has long argued, the current system, which awards each riding to the candidate who wins the most votes, delivers strong, stable government that works.
Does Ontario’s First Past The Post system ensure strong, stable government? That likely depends on how you define “government”. The Star is clearly talking about the time between elections. However, members of Fair Vote Canada define it as over time. Yes, the last three governments, the NDP, the Progressive Conservative Party, and the Liberal Party, all had “strong” and “stable” governments. The the Ontario government between the NDP and PC government was an extreme shift in priorities and funding. Again for the PC and Liberal change.
Our all or nothing system allows massively unstable changes in the government from one election to another. Mean while, actual public opinion changes less often than the election outcomes tend to make it look. Some form of proportional representation would actually make the government more stable over time.
Of course, what anti-MMP people mean is that elections happen more often. For example, in Germany which uses a form of Mixed Member Proportional, they have had the exact same number of election that we have had. So, then, does that mean our system is as unstable as MMP?
Shawn's Humanist Blog 