Yellowknife calls on Ottawa to introduce proportional representation
Yellowknife calls on Ottawa to introduce proportional representation
Yellowknife calls on Ottawa to introduce proportional representation
Yellowknife calls on Ottawa to introduce proportional representation
13 Comments
Well, he’s right that it is surprising, given how much less relevant voters in the territories are in a proportional system. Usually proportional systems keep some geography including one MP per territory, because they don’t like the optics of making northern and indigenous voters far less relevant.
I think proportional would be nice, but he’s wasting his words trying to convince Carney of that. The liberals just won a majority outside of an election **because** of FPTP
PLEASE
Just get some common sense, and introduce an element of proportional representation to our dysfunctional voting system already. It should have been done *generations* ago. Obviously, politicians who benefit from the current system have opposed any changes because it serves their own interests – but at the cost of our democracy.
Think about how dangerous it is: a minority (say, separatists) of just over one-third of the electorate is enough to form a “majority” government under our current system, and not only run the agenda but actually break the country up *contrary to the wishes of the majority*. That’s not just undemocratic, it’s dangerous.
Our current system is much more vulnerable to outside manipulation and interference – you don’t need to actually sway a majority of voters, just a well-financed vocal minority will do.
PLEASE introduce electoral reform before it is too late. In today’s much more hostile geopolitical environment, people complain about our military as a weakness but China, the USA, Russia and rich billionaires alike know it is our internal politics and our voting system that is Canada’s weakest link, not military invasion.
You don’t even have enough for one seat based on population but we give you one anyway. How do you breakdown one seat, does that seat get two half votes? I personally am fine with the way it is now.
I support electoral reform but the current system is benefing the north by giving them three ridings which have far less population than the average riding.
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Well seems FPTP system is way out of date and really not fair at all for trying to achieve close to true voter representation.
Democracy should be as close to that as possible and PR seems much better than current system.
Current system doesn’t at all represent so many people. Their voices are silenced.
This change needs to happen to get people excited again to vote and be part of politics and the country! I like it…
It’s nuts to me, that in the capital city of a territory that has NO political parties in the legislature, and is proud of the fact, would advocate for something that requires political parties. The NWT and Nunavut should be anti-PR realms as they both use consensus government. Every candidate is an independent, and after they get elected, their first order of business is to pick amongst themselves, someone they have confidence in to be premier. That’s something we should see more of, not more party bullshit.
> “A system of proportional representation would make these sorts of projects much easier to handle and lead to a lot more stable and predictable development over the years,” he said.
How? You’re still going to see which party forms government change even in a PR system with coalition governments. There’s always one party that’s seen as the lead and when that changes, so could projects. Also, to become the governing party, a coalition has to be formed, and changing out the members of that coalition, can also change what projects matter.
There’s nothing about PR that will change this issue.
> McLennan gave the example that the NWT has not had a Conservative MP since 1988, which he said means Conservative voters in the territory have not been represented in decisions being made at the federal level for 38 years.
And? PR won’t fix that, as there will be no MP for the NWT for people to seek representation from.
> McLennan added that under the current electoral system, changes in government can result in “fundamental shifts or outright cancellation of federal programs,” impacting municipal budgets.
And I say again, nothing about PR will change that.
> McLennan said he believes a proportional representation system would ensure that “every vote matters” and “smooth out large swings” in federal programming and funding.
Every vote already matters. A vote mattering, is not the same as a vote going to a candidate who wins. The only way to get that, is if everyone who gets a vote becomes an MP, and that’s nuts.
NWT actually benefits from the current system, where regions select representatives, so suggesting this comes as a detriment to them. Very altruistic of them.
“Proportional representation is an electoral system”
It’s actually not a system but a principle for a group of different systems (Party List, mixed-member, etc.)
Call me cynical, but we already have so much difficulties in Canada to build anything under a FPTP system that it would be even more difficult to achieve anything under a system using principles of proportional representation. The latter does increate representation but it also dilute power and you would always have political parties fighting with each other.
I think most countries who have a system based on the proportional representation principle, are usually much more centralized than in Canada.
This is good. People need to be realistic, we’re not going to get major structural changes to our democracy without a prepared electorate that is engaged with the subject. Every time a leader in office raises this subject, we move the needle slightly and make the subject a more legitimate idea. I applaud Yellowknife’s council for doing their bit to raise the profile of the question both at home and across the country.
If we want electoral reform, we need to be willing to do the work.
I put a lot of blame on the Liberals over the past decade, given that they ran in a small part on this issue (once), and then didn’t do anything to prepare people for this debate even if it wasn’t realistic to deliver a new system in a single Parliament. But they’re not alone in being responsible for the . There simply aren’t that many Canadians who are doing anything other than passively complaining that we still have FPTP. The idea that it can be done at the snap of the PM’s fingers is absurd and can’t be the basis for a change this fundamental. I care about this subject, but I can promise you that I’m not even spending much time trying to convince my own friends and family that this is a path forward, so how committed am I really?
The last time there was this kind of a change to the way we select our MPs would probably be when we completed granting suffrage to all Canadian citizens of voting age (sometime between 1917 and 1960 depending on how you slice up the topic). It’s not the work of a minute or something that should be done without proper consultation and consideration of the unintended consequences.
Avi has said making pro rep happen will be ths NDP’s singular demand if they get the balance of power in a Lib minority government under his leadership.