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Submission ALTA-0684 (Online)

Submission By A Alta
AddressVancouver, BC,
Organization
Date20040617
CategoryDemocratic elections, Democratic government, Electoral system change
Abstract
Some suggested reforms for the electoral & governmental process (both Provincial & Federal). [2 pages]

Submission Content
Some suggested reforms for the electoral & governmental process (both Provincial & Federal):

  • Eliminate the Senate, along with all associated staff & offices (& pension off the current Senators).
  • Eliminate the Governor-General & Lieutenant-Governors, along with all associated staff & offices.
  • Prime Minister to be selected as today (leader of the party winning the most seats in the elected Legislature -- in case of a tie, the party winning the most total votes provides the Prime Minister;  in case of a tie in total votes, which is possible but exceeding unlikely, the 2 prospective Prime Ministers flip a coin on live prime-time television for the position).
  • Create LARGE electoral districts (say, at least 10 seats each) strictly according to population (one adult Canadian citizen = 1 vote).
  • Each party campaigns in an electoral district with one or more candidates (up to the maximum # of seats for that riding), ranked in order by the party using whatever method they choose (this ranking to be made public BEFORE the election).
  • Each party is awarded a pro-rata # of seats in each electoral district based on their percentage of the total votes in that electoral district.
  • The seats won in an electoral district are awarded to a party's candidates in the order that they were ranked by the party prior to the election (if a party wins 6 seats, & had 10 candidates, then that party's top 6 ranked candidates gain seats in the legislature, the other 4 do not).
  • Part-seats are rounded (i.e., with 10 seats, 44% of the vote in an electoral district = 4 seats, 45% = 5 seats).
    (this could result in some variance in the # of seats awarded)
    (where too few seats are awarded, as when 3 parties with 32½% & 33½% & 34% of the vote get 3 seats each, award the remaining seat(s) to the party(s) with the most votes, the 34% party getting 4 seats -- this situation can be expected to happen fairly frequently where more than 2 parties are represented, but never where there are only 2 parties).
    (where too many seats are awarded, as when 2 parties with 45% & 55% of the vote get 5 seats & 6 seats respectively, then remove a seat from the party(s) with the least votes, leaving 45% with 4 seats & 55% with 6 seats -- this kind of numeric oddity is not likely ever to happen in practice since it requires getting a % of the vote that ends in exactly 5% [i.e., 15%, 35%, etc.], but it should be provided for in the rules of election.)
  • Elections are held on a fixed date in the Spring of every 4th year -- say the 4th Friday of April every 4th year starting in 2006.  The exception to this is if a government loses a "No Confidence" vote in the legislature (this should only occur during a minority government, or if some of the government's members vote with the opposition party(s) -- in this case the other party(s) should be given a chance to put together sufficient votes to form the government, or failing that, a special election should be held immediately, subsequently followed by a regular election 4 years later, in April.
Thank you for shepherding this process.

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