I attended the citizen's forum event in Coquitlam and thoroughly
enjoyed the process. The arguments were well presented and all
comments were respected, and personal criticism was
absent.
On my way home I came up with my own variation to the issue and I
ask that you post this on your website
It seems to me people want to have a local representative but
dislike the imbalances that can arise from the 'First Past the
Post' system. Minor parties may have general support but can't win
in a single riding. Party leaders are sometimes left out of
the house because they failed to win their own seat.
Unfortunately, the alternatives start getting very complicated and
may scare people away away instead of improving
participation.
My suggestion is to establish a number of seats that are allocated
after the election to better reflect the popular vote. These seats
could be additional to the current house or achieved by increasing
the size of the current ridings.
Here's a quick model:
Say there are 100 seats representing 3 million people or one MLA
per 30,000 voters.
Reduce the number of ridings to 80 so there is one MLA per 37,500
voters.
After the election, additional seats are assigned to a maximum of
20 (to keep the total the same) so that the overall balance in the
house is closer to the popular vote. In most case these seats would
be allocated to the opposition parties and include those minor
parties whose popular vote is spread out but not enough to capture
a single seat. The parties would name who gets those
seats, so that, for example, party leaders could get in even if
they lost their own seat.
This would maintain the riding representation format that people
like and provide more resources to balance government parties in
the house and more importantly on committees. These "MLA's without
portfolios" can be assigned to specific research, committees and
help with riding representation.
Clearly, this requires an agreement in advance to the formula as
the distribution of extra seats may affect the outcome of a close
election.
The main advantages are that voters will still have a local MLA and
the voting process does not change or become complicated. Those who
support minor parties will feel their vote will counts because of
the new "popular vote' seats.
Thank you providing this opportunity to contribute. Keep up the
good work.
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