Voting distortions show change needed

Calgary Herald, October 16, 2008 - editorial

When citizens believe their votes can't possibly make a difference, it is not excusable, but perhaps understandable why so many choose to stay at home on election day. And when the figures are tallied to show how much fairer the results would be under a system of proportional representation [Fair Vote Canada cited], it is clear that debate on changing Canada's traditional first-past-the-post system must begin…It is time…for Canadians to demand that from their politicians.

What if they gave an election and nobody won?

Maclean’s, October 16, 2008 - Andrew Coyne

Indeed, when you think about it, many of the problems identified in this piece have their origins in the perverse incentives of our highly leveraged, winner-take-all electoral system. Why have the Tories degenerated into mush? Because they face no competition on the right…Why did the Liberals ignore their growing weakness all these years? Because they could still count on the bizarre distortions of first-past-the-post to reap a bushel of seats…Why has the Bloc become an immovable blot on the national scene, long after its original purpose was exhausted? Ditto…Why has politics degenerated into such vicious, empty partisanship? Why do so many people no longer bother to vote? Because the system is broken, and if this election won't persuade us to change it, nothing will.

Voting rules fail us

Toronto Sun, October 20, 2008 - Bryn Weese

Electing governments in Canada with the antiquated first-past-the-post system is akin to pulling names out of a hat. The distribution of seats in the House of Commons is completely arbitrary, and has nothing to do with what Canadians actually voted for. It never does. Is it any wonder that only half of eligible voters in Canada can be bothered to cast ballots? Most of their votes (unless they're cast for the winner) are worthless and huge scores of Canadians are robbed of representation…What we need now is action, and ultimately, a reformed electoral process that accurately reflects the wishes of voters. If every ballot cast meant something, voter turnout would inevitably increase.

David Suzuki interview

The Hour, CBC-TV, October 21, 2008

We have this crazy first-past-the-post system, so 38% can actually form the government. I have voted faithfully in every single federal election since I turned 21. I have never voted for a party that got into power. So you might as well say ‘Suzuki, your vote has been thrown away’….I think I’m not alone in this…it’s a tyranny of the minority.

Surely we can do better

The Telegram, St. John’s, NL, October 18, 2008
- Randy Simms

The 40th general election in Canada cost close to $300 million. The voter turnout was a paltry 59.1 per cent…Like it or not, we have to design a voting system where all of the ballots in the box matter. Some kind of proportional representation is needed to make this system work better.

Most of the world's major democracies already use a proportional system to decide elections. I think we should give it a try. As it stands right now, we are spending more and more money on elections that attract fewer and fewer people. You know what they say about doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. It's insane.

21st-century Canada, home of 19th-century democracy

Globe and Mail, October 16, 2008
- Ed Broadbent

It was a bad day for Canadian democracy - more unstable, unrepresentative government…When, oh Lord, will we wake up?….It's time Canadians got the governments we vote for, not the ones our outmoded electoral system continues to regurgitate. It's time our Neanderthal journalists and politicians started telling the truth about our lack of democracy and how most democracies have electoral systems much more effective, representative and stable than our own.

Exercises in democracy

Ottawa Citizen, October 14, 2008 - editorial

The House of Commons is, and will remain after today, strikingly out of phase with the Canadian electorate. The most glaring deficiency is the representation of women, or lack thereof.

But there is also a failure to represent accurately the wishes of voters, owing to vote splitting and a winner-take-all system. Even people with little interest in the mechanics of elections were asking candidates why, in so-called safe ridings, they should bother voting at all, since the result was essentially predetermined.

In frustration, people devised workarounds…[with] online groups devoted to strategic voting. These political games make a fiction of the idea that voters should examine the parties' platforms and make their choices accordingly…

At least the dull roar of frustration about the electoral system is now loud enough that even the Liberals and Conservatives are having trouble ignoring it. It is possible that some reforms to first-past-the-post could be worse than what we've got, but that doesn't mean we can't, as a country, consider the possibilities.

Fair vote system would change Parliament’s look

Orillia Packet and Times (ON), Oct. 18, 2008 - editorial

What would Canada's latest Parliament look like if we used a system of proportional representation rather than the wheezing old first-past-the-post system? It's an interesting question posed by Fair Vote Canada in the wake of what must be another frustrating election for the majority of Canadians….
More troubling, we're on a downward trajectory. It's possible the next election will attract still fewer voters. Followed to its logical conclusion, you have a very real threat to our democratic tradition. Given that context, systemic reform should be near the top of the current government's agenda. It won't be, and that too should prompt Canadians to ask why.

Make every vote count

Stratford Beacon-Herald (ON), October 17, 2008 - editorial

Whatever the reason, Canadian voters stayed home in droves Tuesday, contributing to an all-time low voter turnout of just 59 per cent. It's a particularly shameful number in a long line of shameful election numbers recorded in the past few decades…Hopefully that change begins with a serious debate on electoral reform. And the concept of proportional representation is a good place to start…

I want a system where my vote counts

Toronto Sun, October 19, 2008 - Rachel Sa

I felt dirty after voting last Tuesday. I've voted in every election since I was eligible, casting my ballot in each of Canada's last four general elections. Now, after 10 years of suffrage, I'm wondering: Will I ever get to mark my ballot for the person or party I really want? Thanks to our antiquated first-past-the-post electoral system, I'm sure I wasn't the only Canadian who held her nose and voted for a candidate I don't support just to ensure the candidate I really don't support didn't get a seat.

Time for electoral reform

Clearwater Times ( BC), October 20, 2008 – editorial

After every federal election there is talk about the need for election reform. Both our federal and provincial election systems are first- past-the-post, or winner take all. The result is that, where candidates for more than two parties are named on the ballot, a candidate may win with less than a majority of the votes, and the rest of the votes count for nothing. …

In 2005, B.C. voters came close to authorizing the electoral reform recommended by the Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform. That referendum showed that a strong majority of voters, 56.44 per cent, were in favour of the reforms…If the 2009 referendum receives the necessary 60 per cent voter approval, B. C. will become the first province in Canada to reform its electoral process, and B.C.'s voters will have provided a powerful precedent for voters across the country interested in election reform. Let's just say yes this time.

Election numbers don't add up

North Bay Nugget (ON), October 16, 2008 – editorial

Here is some political math you can try out at home. Thirty-eight per cent equals 46 per cent. Eighteen per cent equals 12 per cent. Ten per cent equals 16 per cent. Seven per cent equals zero. Translated, those figures represent, first, the popular vote picked up by various parties in Tuesday's election, compared to the percentage of seats those parties will actually occupy in the House of Commons… The first-past-the-post system is failing Canadians miserably.