If the Justin Trudeau's Liberal government holds to its
promise our next election will use a new system to distribute seats. Given this
opportunity reformers have been aggressively pushing for their preferred
choice. As should be expected critics have popped up to offer their views on
proposals. I, like many reformers, support some sort of proportional
representation in our new electoral system, but many dismiss it as an
alternative.
I've read a couple of editorials in newspapers and
opinions on Twitter that touch on a flawed argument. Proportional
representation would award seats in parliament roughly in accordance with their
share of popular support. A party that gets 10% of the vote would get about 10%
of the seats. Countries with proportional representation tend to have a greater
number of parties. Denmark, for example, has nine parties in its parliament. In
Germany five parties are represented in the legislature, but over a dozen
others contested the 2013 election.
Some argue that introducing proportional representation
to Canada would similarly fracture our political system into smaller, more
niche parties. I have my doubts. Canada already has a large number of parties
for the first-past-the-post system. That system works best with two parties, the
fact that we have five parties in the House of Commons already somewhat puts
the idea that there will be an explosion of parties a bit to the side.
This piece by Christian Leuprecht in the Globe and Mail
particularly raised my hackles. Leuprecht argues that proportional representation would lead to the growth of
extremist parties, like the Front National, Alternative fur Deutschland and
Donald Trump. This argument, to me, reeks of high-handed elitism. In essence it
says, 'We cannot use proportional representation or otherwise those people with
odious opinions may be given a voice.' You might not like what the United
Kingdom Independence Party stands for, you may disagree with them passionately, but having over 12% of the
population support them in exchange for 2 seats in the House of Commons is
hardly a roaring endorsement of the current democratic system. Saying a great
feature of your electoral system is that it marginalizes the minority political
opinions of your polity strikes me as anti-democratic at its core.
When I was going door-to-door during the election I heard
many people say that they opposed letting in any of the Syrian refugees, yet
none of the political parties had that position. These people were shut out
from candidates and parties that expressed their opinion. Many Canadians have
questions about our immigration policy on the right side of the spectrum, and
on the left there are grave concerns about justice policy, the relationship
between police and minorities and gender equity that the major parties pay
little attention to. Shutting these people out of the system does not mean we
have successfully ended racism as a problem in this country. We have deluded
ourselves through our system which rewards centrist parties that don't rock the
boat overly much. I for one want the presently unpopular positions, policies
and opinions to be represented so they can argued.
Canada has a long tradition of sweeping the unseemly,
impolite aspects of our culture under the rug. I don't believe in that. There
are Canadians out there who wish Donald Trump was running in Canada, who have
views that I find abhorrent, but that does not justify me, or anyone else, to
perpetuate a voting system that keeps their opinions excluded from the system.
If Canada was to adopt proportional representation I
believe we would more than likely see a new party appear on the right in
Canada, likely taking up the socially conservative mantle that the Conservative
Party has suppressed internally, views held by many in Canada that currently
have no home. The NDP would probably move to the left as they do not have to
rely on centrist voters to maintain their support. If not, a hard left party of
socialists would probably pop up. Observers have expressed frustrations about
how close the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP have become in policy,
proportional representation would allow a truly diverse set of views to be
shared and properly represented. Opposing a system because you are comfortable
in the current milieu is hardly a reasonable justification for opening
broadening the discourse and better reflecting the true opinions of your fellow
citizens.
No comments:
Post a Comment