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Tom Monto

Minority governments don't give all power to small parties

A worry of having minority governments is that a small party, representing the sentiment of only a small section of the electorate, will control the process.


This is sometimes called the tail wagging the dog.


And note that minority government are not only produced under proportional representation - they are often produced by winner-take-all First Past The Post elections.


When the Green party demanded the NDP government of BC to bring in PR, there was none of this tail wagging dog.


A major player in a minority government will not do something it is outright opposed to - or that it perceives is not the wish of the general public.


By the force exerted by minority representation (even under FPTP) of the under-represented Greens, the BC government though was pushed to hold a referendum - with what results we know.


Note though that voters in Victoria did vote for change in the referendum. A district-based PR system should be - and could be - brought in just in that city, where voters showed they wanted it, good for them now -- and possibly leading the way for more progress later.


Perhaps emphasis on "local option" "self-determination" would be, like citizens assembly, a way to get around us electoral reformers being held ransom to province-wide referendum.


One way around tail-wagging-dog criticism of PR-produced minority government is to have a system where voters rank parties as to which they want to see in government, a sort of Alternative Voting at the party level, and supplemental seats are allocated to the party with majority support, if required, to ensure that it has majority of seats in the chamber.


Assured majority, no minority governments,

Assured majority government that reflects will of majority of voters.

voters get government most want - with no dependence on after-election party-to-party wheeling and dealing.

No perception of tail wagging dog.

Under this scheme, a single party is accountable for what government does, with no shifting blame to minor player (as Bob Rae's NDP suffered from in Ontario in 1987, But mostly the party's disappointing showing in 1987 was due to FPTP. The NDP actually received more votes and a larger proportion of the vote than it had previously received. But its seat count went down by six.)


Of course, note too that FPTP is no guarantee of majority governments.

Certainly it is no guarantee of majority government supported by majority of voters - there have been only six of those in the entire history of Canada.

Four of the last six federal government have been minority governments.

Only two of the last six federal governments elected under FPTP have been majority governments, neither of them supported by majority of voters

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