Electoral Reform

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

I like the idea of having MMP, but separate party lists for different regions. Regions could be the entire province in some cases, or smaller regions where the province is quite large.

Party lists means filling the house with party hacks and politicos, not true representatives of the people. It would be a perversion of democracy and again, would not guarantee local representation.

[eemy]

Just to flesh out my proposal, you would have two tiers of ridings. The lower tier would be filled using FPTP, and the upper tier would be proportional. I don't personally think that the ratio between the two is consistent across the country. The territories might have no upper tier at all, while, in most cases, a single province would probably have a single upper tier district (although the number of seats in the district may be more than one). In other cases a province could be broken up into multiple districts - major cities, for example, or regions like Northern Ontario.

The lower tier elections would occur as normal, with FPTP elections. The upper tier elections could be filled a number of different ways in order to make the results of the district proportional. Party lists for the district are one option. Alternately, there could be a STV type option for the district seats.

The primary reason I favour something like this is that local representation remains and that everyone has a constituency. It wouldn't result in precisely proportional elections, but it would be much closer. Support would have to be broader and stronger in order to have representation, which discourages splintering within parties.

[1overcosc]

I like this idea:
http://www.threehundredeight.com/201...al-reform.html

It's basically party-list PR but with FPTP-style ridings being used to calculate the list instead of parties nominating lists.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

I like this idea:
http://www.threehundredeight.com/201...al-reform.html

It's basically party-list PR but with FPTP-style ridings being used to calculate the list instead of parties nominating lists.

A good example of the problems to come - I'd wager that a substantial majority of the Canadian population would not be able to understand that explanation of that voting method.

[The Chemist]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

I liked the idea of STV as well, but one thing which has kinda made me reconsider is the role of MPs in such a system.

An STV system usually requires at least 4-5 MPs per riding, which makes for HUGE ridings both population-wise and geographically in most cases. Even in relatively urban areas like Gatineau, that means a riding which stretches 200km across.

In Ireland they go with as few as 3 seats per riding.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Excellent post!

In a country like Canada, the huge nature of some rural ridings can be a real problem. With STV, Saskatchewan could end up with two, or at most three ridings. All of northern Ontario could be a single riding. You could have a situation where the nearest "local" MP is resident in a place 300 km from where you live. Just how responsive would this individual be to your concerns?

Mega ridings are not an option........

Even in my existing riding of Timmins-James Bay, our MP Charlie Angus lives 935 km as the crow flies from Peawanuck First Nation on Hudson Bay, the furthest community.

[kirjtc2]

Here's an idea I came up with for a site I run. Open list PR where you vote for multiple candidates individually. No backroom party lists, no quotas, no top-up seats, just keeping it as simple and open as possible.

http://www.election-atlas.ca/proposal.php

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by kirjtc2

Here's an idea I came up with for a site I run. Open list PR where you vote for multiple candidates individually. No backroom party lists, no quotas, no top-up seats, just keeping it as simple and open as possible.

http://www.election-atlas.ca/proposal.php

So the parties in each "district" would nominate their own candidates, as is done now on a riding basis? Your sample district seems to show what I would describe as a "semi proportional" result.