The current turmoil in Ottawa is yet another cost of using an antiquated winner-take-all voting system, says Fair Vote Canada Executive Director Larry Gordon.

"Party leaders are driven to win as many seats and as much power as possible - that's their job," said Gordon. "The electoral system provides the rules of the game and incentives on how to play, so the system drives behaviour."

"When just 40% of the votes can give you 50% to 60% of the seats and 100% of the power, you have a recipe for instability. That’s what we’re seeing today. Mr. Harper and Mr. Ignatieff know a relatively small shift in voters' opinions can give one of them an undeserved phony majority government. Not surprisingly, both have announced their opposition to power-sharing with other parties in a majority coalition."

Fair and proportional voting systems create different incentives and reward different party behaviours, said Gordon.

“Party leaders in modern democracies know that a majority of voters seldom cast votes for any single party. The vision of gaining complete control of government with only 40% of the votes disappears altogether when all votes are treated equally. In a fair voting system, party leaders who wish to wield power in government know they have to be part of a majority coalition or other stable partnership.”

“Fair voting is not only the right thing to do, in terms of democratic rights for voters,” said Gordon, “It’s also a practical means of providing incentives for positive and constructive political behaviour. Democracy is about negotiation, compromise and legitimate majority rule – and that is what fair voting delivers.”