Having lived with the results of the mixed member proportional
[MMP] system in Germany I can only emphasize the
importance of not implementing it in BC.
Since many years the following happens:
There are 2 big political parties, Conservatives and Social
Democrats. They each have a firm voter base of roughly 35% each.
Furthermore there are 2 smaller parties, Liberals and Green Party
which often are only able to just jump over the 5% hurdle which
entitles them to send representatives to Parliament.
None of the 2 big parties can form the Government alone and need
one or 2 of the smaller Parties as a partner. Plain blackmail and
continuous threats of leaving the Government block are regular
occurrences. Needless to say all well intended and necessary
legislature is watered down to the point were nobody even
recognizes the original ideas.
In addition a lot of the representatives send to Parliament are
selected from lists and are not voted for directly.
This becomes necessary to allow for the balance in the popular vote
compared to the majority vote. A very bad idea since they do not
represent a riding and can't therefore be held accountable directly
by their continuance. In fact nobody knows up front which people
and how many are selected from these lists until the ballots have
been counted. Those seats are rather like patronage
appointments. There is no way to get rid of bad politicians under
this system or even get rid of a bad party all together since there
is always a part of the population who will vote for them no matter
what.
So what if votes fall by the wayside because only the front
runner in each riding gets to Parliament. This will happen in the
mixed system as well if your party of choice does not reach the 5%
hurdle. Or if there is no minimum percentage required we will end
up like the Parliament in the German Weimar Republic between the
wars. Just imagine dozens of parties represented in Victoria
including radical splinter groups and special interest societies
like the "United Dog Lovers of BC".
I sooner have the advantage of a Government which actually is
able to make decisions and follows through than the endless
bickering and horse-trading required in many European
countries.
How many members of Parliament will we end up with under the
proposed reform? If the riding numbers stay the same and every
riding sends one majority member the total must be way more than it
is today since the politicians who slide in via the proportional
mandates are in addition to the others. Don't we have enough
politicians already? Or are all members to be selected
proportionally and are we doing away with the majority vote all
together?
I feel this electoral reform proposal is nothing but sour grapes
initiated by people who can't get their agenda through because they
do not have the support in their riding they need.
I think we have the very best available voting system in Canada.
The only thing I would change is to require set voting dates
instead of leaving the Government with the
freedom to call an election within a non too specific time frame.
Voting should be done at a pre-fixed date. Say every 4
years. Regardless of the popularity the governing party has at the
time.
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