Fixing Harper - Part 2 - Electoral Reform

The first thing the new government can do along this line is scrap the Harper Conservatives' "Fair Elections Act".  There was nothing fair about it.  In fact, it deliberately attempted to disenfranchise as many people as possible and removed investigative powers from Elections Canada.  If we want fair elections, a good first step would be to move in exactly the opposite direction.

The second step would be to bring in a new system of voting in federal elections.  Let's start with this:

The main thrust of many groups is towards some form of Proportional Representation.  Some of those groups are:

• Proportional Representation Canada Discussion Group
• 
  
• Fair Vote Canada

Talk of a new system has already started.  

• The National Post weighs in here.  
• DeSmog Canada talks about the various systems here
•  The Tyee discusses the various options in this article
• And this article very clearly wants FPTP to be killed forever. 

So what are some of the differences between the various options?

Mixed Member Proportional (MMP)

This system can be easily understood by watching this short video

Dual Member Mixed Proportional (DMP or DMMP)

This is another variant of proportional representation that was developed from a political scientist from Alberta.  It claims to avoid some of the concerns with the other forms of PR.

A good, short explanation can be seen here.  Note that the example is based on an election in PEI, but the same strategy could be used nationally.

Single Transferable Vote (STV)

This was the system recommended in British Columbia a few years ago and which was actually voted on in a referendum.  In fact, it's often referred to as BC-STV.

An explanation can be found in Wikipedia about the system.

This short animation helps to explain how it works.

The Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform in BC still has much information on it's website and a good animation to explain how the system is supposed to work.

The P3 System

A good YouTube video explains how this system would work.

There have been quite a few articles in the media about electoral reform.

General articles such as this one in the G&M about reform in principle.

Articles about whether a referendum should be held, or not, ,such as this one in The Tyee.

Rural Urban Proportional

Fair Vote Canada has come out with a "hybrid" system which could deal with the rural-urban divide that we have in Canada.  It's called Rural-Urban Proportional (or STV+).  It combines aspects of MMP and STV.