The province of Saskatchewan is overlooked in most studies of electoral reform but it did undergo reforms at both the provincial and municipal levels.
At the provincial level, Saskatchewan did reform its system to a limited extent, although it never used a systematic PR system, unlike its neighbours Alberta and Manitoba. (Saskatchewan's neighbour to the north, the NWT, is interesting in its own way due to its use of the consensus model in its Legislative Assembly). Both Alberta and Manitoba used STV in its major city or cities for more than 30 years.
Saskatchewan did not ever use STV but did use multi-member districts, which produced some of the benefits of STV (less gerrymandering, wide choice offered to voters, direct relationship between each voter in the city and each member elected in that city).
Saskatoon, Regina and Moose Jaw used multi-member districts for many years.
To separate the cities from their adjoining areas, the urban districts were called Saskatoon City, Regina City and Moose Jaw City, to distinguish the urban district from the neighbouring Saskatoon County, Regina County, Moose Jaw County districts.
1920 Saskatoon City, Regina and Moose Jaw made into multi-member districts - Block Voting under which each voter cast as many votes as there were seats.
Usually one party took all the seats when the number of seats was less than five.
When five members (Saskatoon City 1964), mixed representation was elected.
1920 Saskatoon City made into multi-member district.
Varying number of members (two members, then three, then five) elected through Block Voting, under which each voter cast as many votes as there were seats and multiple members were elected in each district.
Mixed representation elected in some of the contests where two members elected.
One party took all seats sometimes when two elected, and always when three elected.
When five elected (in 1964 election), mixed representation elected - 4 CCF and 1 Liberal was elected.
But due to Block Voting, the 50,000 voters who voted in 1964 cast more than 200,000 votes.
And the result was not proportional - the most popular CCF candidate received votes from less than a third of the voters, the other CCF candidates received support from even fewer, but the CCF took 80 percent of the seats.
1920 Regina City made into multi-member districts
Varying number of members (two members, then three members, then four members. Members elected through Block Voting, under which each voter cast as many votes as there were seats and multiple members were elected in each district. Only in one multi-seat contest (1925) was mixed representation elected.
Before the 1964 election, Regina City was divided into four districts. Two of these new districts - Regina East and Regina West - were two-member districts themselves.
In the 1964 election, Regina East and Regina West both elected pairs of CCF candidates - thus producing dis-proportional one-party sweeps.
1920 Moose Jaw City made into multi-member district.
Two members elected through Block Voting, under which each voter cast as many votes as there were seats and multiple members were elected in each district. Mixed representation elected in 1921 and 1925.
Otherwise one party took both provincial seats each time.
Before the 1967 election, all of Saskatchewan's multi-member districts were broken up and converted into single-member districts.
=====================================
Saskatchewan city elections used STV, with fair and balanced results.
The major cities of Saskatchewan - Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and North Battleford - each have used STV-PR in their past.
Regina used STV-PR from 1921 to 1926
Saskatoon used STV-PR from 1920 to 1926 and from 1938-1942.
Moose Jaw used STV-PR from 1920 to 1925.
North Battleford used STV-PR from 1920 to 1924.
This year we celebrate 100th anniversaries of these events:
Dec. 11, 1922 -- Saskatoon used PR-STV in its second city election. Bob Moore, member of Typographical Union, elected (Redcliff Review, Dec. 21, 1922)
Dec. 11, 1922 -- Regina used PR-STV in its second city election. Gordon Merllin, member of Typographical Union, elected (Redcliff Review, Dec. 21, 1922)
Dec. 11, 1922 -- Moose Jaw used PR-STV for the second time in its city election. Labour filled three of the city's ten seats on council.
===============================================
Comments