I was born in the Netherlands and have also lived in
South Africa, the USA and the last 44 years in Canada. As Canadian
Citizens and entitled to vote, I have always found it
difficult to decide for whom to vote, because of the peculiar and
outdated electoral system we have here. I had no such
difficulty in the Netherlands.
In the 1996 BC Election, the NDP won a majority government (53%
of the seats) with only 39% of the popular vote, compared to the
Liberals, who had 42%. In the 2001 BC Election the Liberals won 97%
of the seats with 58% of the vote, forming a de facto dictatorship.
The 20% of the people who voted for other parties than the NDP and
the Liberals got no representation at all.
This can hardly be called democratic. About any system is better
than what we have, but I would prefer a Mixed Member Proportional
[MMP] system, such as many countries such as Germany, Mexico,
Hungary, Venuzuella, Bolivia and New Zealand have adopted over the
last 50 years.
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