Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Proportional Representation. Choking on the skittles.

I wrote this as a comment below a post by Cyn. Link. (short background for those not from PEI: We are going to soon have a vote on whether to switch from the current British style of electing seats to a system that includes proportional representation.)

I don't know, this whole thing strikes me as a way for the two parties (let's not kid ourselves) to prevent the kind of drastic swings that happen once every 10 years where everyone in the ruling party loses his or her seat.

Isee this as a way to cut a deal so that each party eill always have (I don't know if there's a provincial equivalent to the federal version but anyway) official party status, and have a floor of seats that their traditional support will always guarantee them.

In a PR system we wouldn't have the chance to gloriously kick out a party who's worn out its welcome. Instead party favourites will be able to write themselves a safe career by getting in good with a few party nsiders.

My solution would be to eliminate all political parties. The system that Nunavut has right now has always fascinated me, and maybe it's a better model than the systems that have allowed entrenched party machines in places like Japan, where a single party system works even better than in Canada.
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By al - 11:49 a.m. |

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