Changing the Electoral System in Canada Essay - …
Until the 2015 election, electoral reform was most seriously pursued at the provincial level. British Columbia broke new ground on this issue with the creation of the in 2004. 160 citizens were chosen at random - 2 from each riding and 2 from the aboriginal community - to meet and debate the merits of changing the provincial electoral system. The Assembly met for several months in early 2004 and then set out a series of public consultation meetings. In the fall of 2004, the Assembly decided to recommend that BC should adopt the system. The Assembly's report, (pdf - 1.9MB) was released in December 2004. The recommendation to adopt a new electoral system was put to the voters in a question at the May 2005 provincial election. In order for the measure to be acted upon, the government raised the existing referendum legislation to require a successful vote to achieve 60% support across the province, including 50% support in 60% of the ridings. The fell just short of the main criterion, with 58% support province-wide, although all but 2 of the ridings saw at least 50% support for adopting STV. With the widespread dissatisfaction that a strong majority was still not accepted by the government of the day, the premier agreed to a second vote to be held four years later along with the next general election. By that time interest in electoral reform had fallen off the the vote was almost 61% in favour of the current system.
Canadian electoral system essay - AerialWorks Imaging
Essay on Canada's Electoral System
has published some interesting material on electoral reform, particularly in connection with its . In addition, the and issues of Policy Options contain many articles debating the relative merits of reforming Canada's electoral system. Broader discussions of elections are also found in Richard Johnson's (pdf) and in Paul Howe's and David Northrup's .
Should the Canadian Electoral System be ..
It is important to note that the models covered here do not exhaust the many possible ways of translating votes into seats. For example, Italy's parliament has approved major changes to their electoral system, which has been a pure party list system since 2005. Under the new system, voting would still be based on an elector choosing one of the parties to vote for, and the initial distribution of seats is done on a proportional basis from party lists. But there is a majoritarian bonus, given to a party that wins 40% or more of the national vote: a total allocation of 340 seats out of the total 630. If no party wins 40%, a second round of voting would be held. So, the Italians would have what one might describe as a PR, pluralitarian-majority, double-ballot system!
