LogFAQs > #946710125

zebatov posted...

Cons would have won, though, if the election was based on votes. Im not sure why they wouldnt agree to that reform.

Because usually, that isn't what happens. Ranked ballot is ideal for the Liberals because they're very often people's second choice. They'd basically never lose another election again that way, which is why nobody else agreed to it. Conservatives rarely win the popular vote, so FPTP is best for them. That they did win the popular vote this time is unusual, and not something on which they should base their position on electoral reform.

Proportional representation (basically operating by popular vote), then, would effectively guarantee there'd never be another majority government and ensure that all of the smaller parties that rarely win significant numbers of seats (NDP, PQ, Green, and I guess even the PPC might have managed one seat this time) would have a non-negligible voice in the government. This would be the best representation of the will of the people, as well as the most effective defense against extreme policies (regardless of which way they lean), but it runs into the downside of there only being so many hours in a day and it taking rather a long time to hear every single proportionally-presented viewpoint on every issue. Personally, I still like the idea of prop rep more than either alternative, but it's certainly not without issues of its own, and in practice there's a good chance it'd lead to more coalitions to streamline parliament a bit (ultimately giving voters less choice).

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