The House of Commons formed a special committee to investigate P.R. and electoral reform.
In the end, the Special Committe on Elections and Franchise Acts ruled against change.
Special Committee on Elections and Franchise Acts was struck to examine “the proportional representation system; the alternative vote in single-member constituencies; compulsory registration of voters; and compulsory voting.”
The study took a reserved approach and came out against electoral reform.
Mr. John Ritchie MacNicol (MP for Toronto Northwest) told the Committee that he had studied voting systems for 30 years. He referred to past meetings with Lord Salisbury, high up in the PRS (UK). (18th Parliament, 1st Session, vol. 1, p. 75)
Mr. A.A.Heaps, a Committee member and Winnipeg MP, answered questions on the workings of STV.
The Committee collected information from Mr. MacArthur, returning officer of provincial elections in Winnipeg.
Ronald Hooper, self-taught PR expert, editor of the Winnipeg Tribune, reeve of the St. John rural municipality (in the Winnipeg area), gave evidence.
(his appearance is referred to on page 97 and 100. His appearance begins on page 101 and continues to page 126. (Notes from his evidence and resulting discussion below)
In its 1936 report recommending against electoral system reform, the Special Committee on Elections and Franchise Acts questioned whether the adoption of either some form of PR [its focus was on STV] or the AV would work across the Dominion of Canada and be “conducive to good government.” It appears that the Special Committee’s focus went beyond how electoral system change could impact the representativeness of Parliament, in terms of how votes were translated into seats, to what could be meant as “good government.”
see:
(House of Commons, Special Committee on Elections and Franchise Acts, Fourth and Last Report, Journals, 1st Session, 18th Parliament, 11 June 1936, pp. 446–448; and Second and Last Report, Journals, 2nd Session, 18th Parliament, 6 April 1937, pp. 390–394.62)
The transcript of the Committee proceedings is available online at:
Push for electoral reform had been strengthened by improved positions achieved by two non-traditional parties in the 1935 election - the new Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) won 7 seats in the West (except Alberta), on a platform of social reform, and the new Social Credit Party, in the Prairies won 17 seats (15 of them in Alberta) with its platform of monetary reform.
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Hooper's evidence is illuminative both as presenting information on STV and pro-rep, and also showing difficulties of communicating STV to those unfamiliar with it.
For instance on page 97 (or page 100?), there is confusion when one person said regarding the first count that all first preferences are counted, and another said each vote is counted, not making it clear that only first preferences are counted.
Also on page 125-26 we see MacNicol show his incomplete understanding of STV by pointing out in Tasmania more than one hundred counts are needed to elect winners among 26 candidates. That large number of counts is only due to fact that Aus. systems count each transfer (example 37 votes from candidate A to candidate B) as a count, while Canadian STV systems considered a count as being notation of all the transfers from an elected or eliminated candidate to any others as one count. (example: 37 votes from candidate A to candidate B; 24 votes from candidate A to candidate C, etc. all as one count)
on page 125-126 MacNichol put it that New South Wales formed a commission after each election and to investigate why system was not working and eventually got rid of STV. [I don't see this reform from STV anywhere in historic record for NSW]
MacNicol provided information that purported to show that STV produced high rate of spoiled votes, low voter turnout and larger number of candidates. (p. 127)
Hooper responded to the fatuous charges, saying under Aus. rules spoiled ballots arise from a voter marking only one choice instead of ranking all the candidates as required, but even so Aus. authrorities have noted the rate of spoiled ballots under STV is no greater than spoiled votes in Senate elections where STV is not used.
Some confusion arose about whethere Senate used block voting or Alternative voting but the fact remained --the rate of spoiled votes under STV was not large enough to be problem.
The rate of spoiled vote shown is only 2 to 5 percent -- it varied from election to election -- and MacNicol nowhere considers that, of the 95 percent or more of votes cast that were valid, about 80 per cent or more were used to elect someone. Whereas under FPTP, perhaps only one percent of votes cast might be spoiled but as few as 18 percent of the valid votes are used to elect the member.
page 125 Hooper responds to query whether grouped constituencies electing multiple members is possible in rural Manitoba.
He said he never considered the redistricting required, but off the cuff was prepared to say:
-ridings then currently in used were arbitrary and artificial, and a system that uses them in grouped fashion is not the best.
- multi-seat districts may be too large if single-member disitrict is already large. he uses Dauphin as example.
[he never clearly said that STV is district-based so STV can be brought in in some rural places and not in others where it is not practicable.]
-says having all districts equal-sized not necessary, showing that equal-sized district is no safeguard of proportionality (using an example of gerrymandering in Australian federal elections).
But that also applies to multi-member districts -- just because Winnipeg has ten members, there is no reason to make up ten-seat districts elsewhere.
Equality would arise from fair voting and also from same ratio of voters to members even if number of seats varies from district to district.
Hooper was asked about how many Canadian cities have abolished STV.
He answered that Calgary was still using it and Saskatoon (but actally Saskatoon had stopped it but would take it up again in a few short years )
and of course Winnipeg which like Calgary, would use STV until 1970.
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