In 1924 Alberta brought in an electoral system that used STV in the cities and Alternative Voting outside the cities.
This had the virtue of allowing voters across the province to use preferential voting but with two different kinds of results - proportional representation in the cities and representation of the majority in each district only elsewhere.
By the late 1920s it was noticed that the UFA was winning most of the rural districts, jsut as it had won under FPTP before change to STV/AV in 1924. There was no help to the minority parties (the Liberal and Conservative parties) in those parts of the province, while minority parties in the cities (the UFA in Edmonton and Labour in Edmonton and Calgary) did get help under STV in the cities. or at least if they did not get help, they were not under-represented as minorities were under AV - and in the old First Past The Post elections.
Conservative Party leader McGillivray called for this unequal treatment to be addressed, in 1928 March.
"Government to make no effort to provide uniform voting system"
In the Alberta Legislature, Conservative MLA McGillivray (Calgary) put forward three options of electoral reform for vote in the Alberta Legislature:
- extension of PR to rural districts, or
- creation of single-member districts in cities and use of AV (currently used in rural districts) there, or
- adoption of a system whereby each voters is given as many votes as the number of candidates that may be elected. (Thus creating FPTP in single-member rural districts and Block Voting in the multi-member city districts. Block Voting had been the system used in 1921 when the Liberal voters, likely only a minority of Edmonton voters, had taken all the city seats. FPTP was the system used in most districts in the province prior to 1924 when only one party took a large number of seats, far more than it was due, often with the proven support of only a minority of the voters.)
McGillivray asked the MLAs "on what principle does the government proceed that minorities for the cities should be given representation here and not minorities for the country?"
The UFA premier argued against reform saying the redistribution of districts and the voting system were inseparably joined, and one could not be discussed without the other. But 1928 was not the right time for redistribution.
McGillivray said it was obvious the premier had read the votes and proceedings for the day, which showed his resolution asking for a redistribution, and he had heard the premier put forward the argument that it was too early in the life of the Legislature to consider a new voting system and redistribution. [The idea that the boundaries of districts are inextricably tied to the system of voting used is interesting - and reflects reality that single-member and multi-member districts have great importance as far as the proportionality and fairness of the results created by elections. Single-member districts can only elect one per district, only one party or group can have representation - while multi-member districts can see multiple groups or parties have some representation if the electoral system is at all fair. As districts are always mixtures of different people, fair elections in multi-member districts, such as through STV, thus are usually more fair to all than single-member districts.]
McGillivray had no substantial argument against this linkage, and his argument, it seems, evoked little sympathy.
Alberta never did adopt an uniform system of voting throughout - not, that is, until the province turned away from PR altogether. This happened much later -- in the 1950s when only voters older than 50 years old could have ever voted before in FPTP provincial elections.
As the Herald put it, "All the Conservative leader's eloquence went for naught and the podding steam-roller squashed him on the vote": McGillivray's resolution was voted down, 43 to 10, UFA and Labour against; support for it only expressed by Conservative and Liberal MLAs.
(info from "Government to make no effort to provide uniform voting system" in 1928 March 14, 1928 Calgary Herald
Two years later a Labour MLA tried to have PR imposed on city elections as well. By 1930 Calgary was the only Alberta city using STV, Edmonton and Lethbridge having both having used it but dropping it.
Andrew Smeaton, Labour MLA (Lethbridge), called for PR in all acts and city charters where the type of voting system is prescribed.
His resolution received support from all sides, but still it was voted down when other members did not want to impose PR on electors who had autonomy over such matters.
(from Edmonton Journal, Feb. 26, 1930
[https://librarysearch.assembly.ab.ca/client/en_CA/search/asset/30116/0])
[In other contexts we see the reverse -- citizens of a city demanding PR but provincial governments preventing them from making the switch. This happened in Ottawa in 1916, and currently Edmonton city officials say Edmonton cannot have PR because the provincial government prevents it.
Even if not forced on cities, citizens of cities could have asked for it but by 1931 interest in STV had waned. And only one city in Canada later added itself to Calgary and Winnipeg, who used it continuously from 1917/1920 to the 1960s/1970s.
This was Saskatoon. Saskatoon was the only city in Canada to use STV, drop it, take it up again and drop it once more. Or at least so far is the only city to take up PR a second time.
Perhaps others of the 20 Canadian municipalities who used it before 1931 will take it up again!]
Thanks for reading.
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