I, for one, don’t want electoral reform. I’m quite happy with first-past-the-post the way it is.
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I don’t have any big feelings one way or the other but I did read the report and I can see where the Liberals are both pissed off and simply dancing around the damn issue.
First off, the committee only says the government should have a referendum, put the current FPTP system on the ballot as well as some other system with a Gallagher Index under 5. As a point of reference the 2012 general election had a GI of ~12. So the report ultimately says “We should have a referendum on changing the system and the government should recommend something.” I thought recommending something was their job?
Surprising no one, the Greens and NDP want a MMR or some sot of Rural/Urban model with urban areas getting multiple MPs. The Liberal obviously disagreed, and if I’m reading this correctly they object to the dilution of direct representation a MMR system would entail.
The problem, as I think many these Liberal consultation exercises are going to discover, is that a government needs to make choices regardless of consensus.
I don’t see why they did just go with a single transferable ballot with medium sized regions. It keeps the same number of MPs, is easy to explain, there’s no complex mathematical underpinning and it forces MPs to broaden their appeal outside of just motivating their base.
There wasn’t a general election in 2012.
And to answer your question: No.
It was NOT the mandate of the ERRE to come up with one, rock solid plan. It was their mandate to study the issue and provide options. Here it is word for word:
You’re completely right, it was the 2011 election. :smack:
And after reading the mandate I don’t understand the Liberal objections - other than they’d rather not hold a referendum. Actually I’d almost be interested in taking 1 or 2 models and having them applied to a few upcoming by-elections but I doubt there’s time to craft ballots and get approval. At least we might get some insight into practicalities, voter expectations and what type of voter education might be needed.
That’s actually a very clever idea.
The Liberals will accept single transferable ballot, with no referendum, because that is the electoral system that they are likeliest to win, so no other answer was correct.
The NDP, more or less, and Greens BIG TIME, will accept proportional representation because - for now - it’s most beneficial to them.
The Tories want to keep FPTP because… well I think the pattern is obvious now.
The festive season has arrived – yesterday I heard a carol for the first time since last year, accompanying a vid of merry Montreal.
Thanks for the link, Muffin. That was all over the news today, but only excerpts. Nice to see the whole thing.
Love how the plow truck continues to spread salt even as it goes out of control down the hill!
If you haven’t taken the mydemocracy.ca poll online yet, please do. It’s hilarious.
Rather than asking straightforward questions it’s basically a sort of Facebook personality quiz presenting a bunch of false dilemmas. At the end it actually tells you what “type” you are. It told me I am a “Guardian,” which among other things means I do not like online voting.
In fact there were at least 4 questions about online voting and I answered EVERY ONE positively.
The survey is frankly preposterous and, like the reform committee, is clearly designed to either deliver the answer the Liberals want to hear or simply fail. A monkey could have done a better job.
That was terrible. It looks like the questions were thrown together by the High School dance committee. How often have you discussed the dance with people?
a) Not all
b) Most people
c) All people.
I wound up as a Guardian as well.
Guardians
My democracy is decisive and accountable
Guardians tend to favour decisive governments that can take swift action and offer a clear line of accountability to voters. While they expect Members of Parliament to faithfully represent their constituents, they also believe, more than other groups, that party loyalty should be respected. They tend to believe that larger parties can govern and represent Canadians in a more efficient and effective way.
Guardians are more likely to believe that there is an equal chance for candidates of all backgrounds to be elected, and are less likely to feel special measures are needed to increase the diversity of Members of Parliament.
Guardians tend to strongly believe election ballots should be easy for voters to use and to understand.
Guardians are less likely to see voter turnout as an area of concern and prioritize security of the vote more than other groups. More than other archetypes, they consider it important that people are free to choose to vote rather than being required to do so. Guardians are also the least likely to support moving from paper ballots to online voting.
I tried it a few days ago and about 2/3 of the way through the site froze on me and I quit. Yeah, the questions were quite useless.
I’m an Innovator! Yay me!
I have not yet taken the survey, or even looked at it, but this:
This reads more like the results of a Myers-Briggs personality test, than a way to electoral reform. What concrete ideas does the government hope to find with this?
Viola Desmond will be the first Canadian woman on the $10 bill:
I think she’s a great choice 
Not impressed at all with that survey.
Okay, this is hilarious! The National Post has posted its parody of the mydemocracy.ca survey. The Post’s survey is called democracymine.ca, and among the agree/disagree questions it asks:
“We should allow voters to express multiple choices on a ballot, even if it means allowing voters to express multiple choices on a ballot.”
“Your house was ransacked by thugs, your family was tied up in the basement with socks in their mouths. You try to open the door, but there’s too much blood on the knob. The voting age should be lowered.”
Among the either/or propositions:
“Canadians should have the option to cast their ballots online in federal elections, even if this idea may in no way be sustainable with a functioning democracy OR Canadians should continue to vote using paper ballots at a polling station, even if it means Millennials may have to leave the house.”
“Heads I win OR Tails you lose.”
“Canada should hold a referendum on electoral reform OR Women should continue to be accorded the right to vote.”
You can try the Post’s survey here:
That was actually fun and I’m glad someone finally asked me my views on bees.
I got Meh
Meh
My democracy is disinterested and hockey
One of the largest segments of Canadian voters, the meh does not particularly care what’s going on in Ottawa, so long as they’re not raising taxes or screwing up too bad.
I posted in the mini-rants about how she’s being referred to as “Canada’s Rosa Parks”. That bothers the hell out of me considering Rosa Parks did her protest like 9 years later.
I’ve never heard of her, but I’ve certainly heard of Rosa Parks. Anyway, I was surprised to even hear that we had segregated sections in movie theatres in Canada. I thought we were above that nonsense.
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I went to school in the area and every February we would learn about Mathieu de Costa, Viola Desmond, and (especially important) the neglection/forced-eviction/razing of Canada’s oldest Black settlement by the local government in the 1960’s.
The Africville issue is still a particularly sore one for the Black-Nova Scotian community (an old, segregated, and long oppressed one).
About time someone exposed the dark secrets of the Canadian maple syrup cartel: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/12/maple-syrup-heist