Dennis Pilon
The Politics of Voting. Reforming Canada's Electoral System (2016)
from page 44:
[referring to the alternation of parties in and out of power, that can happen under our non-proportional winner-take-all FPTP election system]
"... Of course, even when there is an alternation in government, it is seldom a case of voters “throwing the rascals out.”
Under plurality, governments may get less, the same, or more support, and still be defeated, depending on how the votes break down.
In 1975 the BC NDP lost power despite maintaining the level of support that had brought them to power in 1972.
In 1935 the federal Liberals won a majority government with the same percentage of the vote as had caused them to lose control of the government in 1930.
In 2006 the governing New Brunswick Conservatives gained more support than in the previous election as well as more votes than the opposition Liberals — and still lost the election.
Imputing change to the voters ignores how the state of party-system competition is much more important in whether governments remain in power or fall.
In the end, it is the plurality system and its tendency to inflate the legislative support of the most popular party that ultimately puts governments in or votes them out."
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Yes, it is the random-ness of the results that is one of the most infuriating aspects about the non-proportional FPTP election system.
We saw that when Socialist Party MLA Charlie O'Brien took more votes when he was up for re-election in 1913 but was not elected.
We saw it when Rachel Notley's NDP government was up for re-election in 2019. The NDP candidates across the province took more votes than they had in 2015, but the government was not re-elected.
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If it is seen as undemocratic to have to vote in a system where there is only one candidate, it should be seen as just as un-democratic to have to vote under a system where only one candidate can be elected.
Thanks for reading.
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