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Tom Monto

A Made-in-Canada PR system -- STV/MMP

Updated: May 15, 2021

Anita Nickerson, of Fair Vote Canada, remarked that

"A made-in-Canada PR system can be designed with the values Canadians care about foremost in mind.

Values such as

fair results,

a representative Parliament,

greater voter engagement,

more collaboration,

more accountability,

better representation of diversity and voter choice [a wide range of candidates in each district], and

stability..."


In October [2016], 63 per cent of Canadians voted for parties that campaigned on platforms calling for making every vote count in 2019. That’s a real mandate." (2016)

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Of course now we know that PM Trudeau would break his promise to us that the 2015 federal election would be the last election held using FPTP.


An example of a simple made-in-Canada PR system would include:

Grouping the districts in each small and medium city to make multi-member city-wide districts of up to 10 seats.

Grouping groups of districts in large metropolitan cities to make multi-member districts of up to 10 seats this dividing a city into a couple or a few multi-member districts.

Grouping adjacent rural districts where majority of voters vote in referendum that they approve of such a move.

Allocating 25 seats to a country-wide top-up where party tallies are used to allocate seats, each full four percentage points of support eligible for a seat. (Remaining seats are allocated to remaining percentages of support in order to quantity of un-represented support remaining.)


Proportional representation would result in each city, and thus a mixed representation in each province and region would result. (annulling the present regionalism)


As well, each party that had at least four percentage points of support overall would have at least some representation in the House of Commons.


This harkens back to the STV system that Alberta and Manitoba used from 1920s to at least 1948. City-wide districts were used in Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg to elect multiple MLAs. In each election in each district, mixed representation spread across multiple parties was the result.


It worked then. It would work again.


Thanks for reading.

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Check out my blog "List of Montopedia blogs concerning electoral reform" to find other blogs on this important subject.


As well, please consider purchasing my booklet "When Canada Had Effective Voting" STV in Western Canada 1917-1971. 68-page overview of Canada's PR experience in the last century - the fight for proportional representation, the adoption of STV by 20 cities and two provincial governments in the 1920s, and STV's final use in a government election, in the 1971 Calgary city election. Available through AbeBooks.com or email me at montotom@yahoo.ca


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This year is the:

* 100th Anniversary of United Farmers of Alberta party being elected on promise to bring in electoral reform, a promise fulfilled three years later.

* 50th anniversary of the last STV city election in Canada. Calgary elected 14 city councillors through STV, and then switched to FPTP for city elections. By that time, more than 54 years after the first STV city election, anyone old enough to have voted using X voting in a city election would have had to be 75 years old.

* 50th Anniversary of election of Lougheed's Progressive-Conservatives. With only 46 percent of the vote they took more than 60 percent of the seats. NDP received 11 percent of the vote but elected just one (Grant Notley), instead of the nine MLAs it was due.

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What is STV?

From a 1902 reform magazine:

"Thinking it well to have in every number something by way of a brief explanation of proportional voting, I repeat in this number the following. Proportional representation means the use of a reasonable and scientific system of voting instead of the present stupid, unfair and inefficient procedure.

Methods: There are several systems by which the principle of proportional representation may be given effect to. Large electoral districts, each electing several members, are a necessary feature. The "quota" plan is usually employed. It means that a quota of the votes elects one representative. To arrive at the quota, the number of valid votes cast is divided by the number of seats to be filled. For instance in a seven-member district any one-seventh of the voters could elect one representative and the other six-sevenths could not interfere with their choice.


The three principal systems of proportional representation are the Free List as used in Switzerland and Belgium [party-list pro-rep], the Hare system as used in Tasmania [STV], and the Gove System as advocated in Massachusetts.


The Preferential Vote [Alternative Voting/Instant Run-off Voting] -- This is used in the election of single officers such as a mayor. It is not strictly a form of pro-rep but is akin thereto, and uses part of the same voting methods. The object of preferential voting is to encourage the free nomination of candidates and to obtain always a clear majority at one balloting, no matter how many candidates are nominated."

(From the Proportional Representation Review Dec. 1902, p. 77) (Hathi Trust online resource, page 81/180)


Thanks for reading.

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