Articles on electoral reform on blogsite Montopedia
Written and shared by Tom Monto 2021
my blogs also listed/indexed on these blogs:
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/montopedia-blogs-on-electoral-reform-2022
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In these blogs I point out
weaknesses of existing FPTP,
need for proportional representation in a democracy,
possible replacement electoral systems, and
my preference for STV (preferential voting in multi-member districts)
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In particular, subjects covered by blogs include:
Weaknesses of FPTP
- 2019 Alberta election
- 2019 federal election
- Alberta NDP under-represented since its founding in 1961
- 2018 Ontario election
- Edmonton city elections
City of Edmonton electoral reform
-- ease of grouping wards to make multi-member districts
-- new single-member wards for 2021 will make little difference -- still many votes
will be wasted; minorities, not majorities, will be represented
History of Canadian governments changing electoral systems
Variety of electoral systems that Canadian governments have used
How do we bring about electoral reform?
Multi-member districts
(all forms of PR use multi-member districts/at-large elections. This alone has benefits whether you use party-list PR, STV or SNTV.)
- Multi-member districts are key to having a range of candidates and representative legislatures
Proportional representation (a family of systems including party-list pro-rep and STV)
Single Transferable Voting (STV)
STV - what it is and how to make it happen now!
- how it works
- Sandford Fleming's 1893 book Essays on the rectification of Parliament
Catherine Helen Spence
- history of use of STV in Canadian history
- Edmonton city elections 1923-1927
- Election of Edmonton MLAs 1924-1955
- 1926 Alberta provincial election
- Election of Edmonton and Calgary MLAs in 1948
- Alberta provincial elections 1924-1955
- Manitoba provincial elections 1920-1952
- Winnipeg city elections 1920-1960s and 1970s
- Canadian cities (20 Western Canadian cities used STV in 150 elections)
- Why was provincial STV dropped in Alberta and Manitoba?
Australia and STV
Tasmania and STV Catherine Helen Spence
2020 Australian election - STV proved its worth
Alternative Voting (AV) (also known as Instant-Runoff Voting)
- how Alternative Voting works
-- AV defended from untrue criticism
"Attack on Preferential Voting based on shaky grounds"
- history of use of Alternative Voting
- BC elections in 1952, 1953
- New York has adopted AV as of 2019
- Aspen, Colorado used quasi-AV in 2009 -- "total schmozzle"
- Maine has adopted AV for elections of congressmen, STV affected 2018 outcome
- London, Ontario adopted AV
- London, Ontario forced by Ontario Ford government to give up AV
Party-list pro-rep
-- Ranked ballots versus party-list pro-rep
Single Non Transferable Voting
* SNTV pretty proportional and much more so than FPTP
* SNTV allows diversity of candidates and representatives
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[Guide to keywords:
preferential voting = ranked ballots = single transferable votes = Alternative Voting or STV
Preferential Voting = Alternative Voting
Single Transferable Voting (STV) = PR-STV, STV-PR
FPTP = First Past The Post
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2021 December
Electoral reform in Saskatchewan
2015 Alberta election NDP victory Rachel Notley Alberta NDP
Alberta NDP policy
Fair Vote Canada conference
MM districts STV ranked voting
London ON ranked voting IRV AV 2018 municipal reform
1953 BC AV election IRV
1953 BC election - Alternative Voting did not make big difference
Instant-runoff Voting BC history SC Social Credit CCF Liberal Conservatives Labour Uphill
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London Ontario 2018 IRV election Updated: Dec 2021
The 2018 London Ontario city election stands out as the first time ranked votes have been used in a Canadian government election since 1971. (the last use of STV in a govenment election in Canda was the 1971 Calgary city election)
London Ontario 2018 IRV election
London Ontario 2018 IRV election Updated: Sep 23 The 2018 London Ontario city election stands out as the first t...
Ontario electoral reform IRV Alternative Voting
provincial districts MM districts Alberta provincial election 2019
2015 Alberta Election NDP victory
2019 Canadian election
2021 Canadian election
provincial districts MM districts
Alberta will be 150 years in Canada in 2020!
Alberta was part of Canada starting in 1870 Rat Creek Rebellion proves this and other things as well
provincial districts MM districts
[as well there may be another blog on Amherst]
provincial districts MM districts
provincial districts MM districts
ranked votes no great thing
Canada U.K. U.S. STV
FPTP Canada UFA 1924
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/justin-trudeau-s-life-in-elections
Liberal PM
False majorities
municipal reform Edmonton 1960
[Oct. 23, 2021]
FPTP
1968 Edmonton municipal reform
Edmonton municipal reform
2021 Edmonton city election - Wards divided us and most voters were ignored
Edmonton's new city council is well balanced. Eight women and four men were elected. Both people of colour and ...
2021 Canadian election federal FPTP Conservative victory
Sault Ste. Marie Kitchener
Mun 1924 UFA Alberta STV Edmonton Calgary Medicine Hat
DMP is where two leading candidates are elected by sheer plurality
if single voting is used, result can be proportional.
where each voter cast two votes, often only one group is represented.
"Scientific suffrage," under such systems as MMP or STV, produces more certainty, compared to plurality systems.
2021 Canadian election
Alberta provincial elections
Alberta federal elections Canadian election
Edmonton city elections
provincial districts MM districts
What would electoral reform in Canada look like? What I thought of what Max Fawcett said
The Big Story podcast "What would Electoral Reform in Canada Look Like? (October 2021)
Jordan Heath-Rawlings. This is The Big Story.
Interview of Max Fawcett
London, ON Alberta 1924 Manitoba 1920
1923 - Edmonton's first STV election
municipal STV Alberta Edmonton
Ballot-counting machine takes away good feeling of 2021 Edmonton city election
municipal Alberta
Majority rule, Diversity on council, Effective Votes and Edmonton city e... Colin Walmsley in otherwise excellent article https://www.fairvote.ca/2021/09/28/blame-first-past-the-post-for-c...
municipal
Colin Walmsley FVC
rural-urban disparity polarization
federal Canadian 2021
federal Canadian
Mackenzie King
federal Canadian
Lambertson's Proxy Plan not great new idea
Lambertson presents what he thinks is a go-around on electoral reform but his Proxy Plan proposal would not wor...
2019 Canadian election 2019 federal election low turn-out, split vote means Trudeau re-elected ... Here's some election stats courtesy of the Communist Party Marxist-Leninist party newsletter, just in case it ha...
federal Canadian
Our electoral system more screwed up than 1982 BC book perceived
Our electoral system more screwed up than 1982 BC book perceived
Came across this review of an older book on a subject that is interesting to PR writers: Elections British Colum...
Elections British Columbia: The Unique Guide For Provincial Election Participants and Spectators, by T. Patrick Boyle, Vancouver, Lions Gate Press, 1982, 191 p
1921 election, like 2021's, produced a minority government. Will Trudeau... There's an article on the 1921 election in the Proportional Representation Review magazine. It is written by Ron...
1921 Canadian election
Alternative Voting IRV
London AV city election only partially majority rule and not proportional
The recent issue of Alberta Views (October 2021) has published cribbed info from the Unlock Democracy Canada web...
London Ontario
Canadian politics and what PR could look like
A recent article provides a primer for perplexed US readers concerning the recent Canadian election: https://www...
Ranked votes in U.S. and in Canada
U.S. is hard to figure. And STV's adoption and survival is unusual, very much determined by local culture. A hun...
STV transfers
Alberta history
Alberta Manitoba STV transfers
Alberta elections
Australia
optional ranking
exhausted votes
Saskatooon-area writer called for support for PR-friendly candidates Saskatooon Star-Phoenix Aug. 26, 2021
Saskatoon
Canadian Union of Public Employees
ranked votes Alternative Voting IRV
1953 BC election - Alternative Voting did not make big difference
Instant-runoff Voting BC history SC Social Credit CCF Liberal Conservatives Labour Uphill
Vote transfers made little difference in Canada's AV elections
Alberta Manitoba BC provincial elections 1952 1953
1952 BC election Alternative Voting
Alternative Voting - Ontario beware!
Ontario Alternative Voting versus PR
importance of multi-seat districts and Single voting
Alberta - Manitoba - BC use of AV
Vancouver's STV elections, 1921-1922 - fair and balanced
BC municipal electoral reform city elections
Vancouver's STV elections, 1921-1922 - fair and balanced
Vancouver's STV elections Vancouver used PR-STV in two elections in January 1921, January 1922 and December 1922...
Is SNTV good enough or are STV vote transfers critical? in pure system or as part of MMP system
looks at innovation-system where seats are added to bring percentage of leading party's seat count (assumed tobe larger than it should be) down to its percentage of votes, the added seats are given to the under-represented parties.
Fairer district elections would decrease the size of top-up required. i suggest STV or even SNTV.
2021 Canadian election re-done as per city-wide SNTV results
Malta
Anthony Hodgson - bottom's up STV
what he calls Multiple Instant-Runoff Voting
four forms of Single Voting in Multi-seat districts:
SNTV
three forms of STV: Gregory
whole-vote surplus transfer (Hare)
Bottom's up
24 U.S. cities have used STV - with more to come
Now Cambridge Minneapolis Albany Amherst (soon)
in old days Ashtabula Cleveland Boulder Kalamazoo Sacramento
Canada: Calgary -- Nelson New Westminster and other BC centres -- Winnipeg -- Vancouver Victoria -- Regina Saskatoon -- Edmonton Lethbridge
municipal PR
Amherst election said to be success even without STV
Amherst Mass. municipal PR
STV works because it is single voting in multi-seat districts
SNTV transfers not as important as some think
PEI 2021 election produced minority government and minority winners
How did FPTP do in PEI's last election?
minority-vote winners means majority without representation
PEI legislature on verge of authorizing citizens' assembly on PR
electoral reform citizens assembly
Many exaggerate the effect of STV vote transfers and their complexity
Dave Meslin
Scotland local elections
Alberta provincial elections
Manitoba provincial elections
Most or all of the front runners in the 1st Count are elected in the end.
many back-up preferences are never considered
even when votes are moved according to back-up preferences, surplus vote transfers are sometimes done without math. Whether it is whole-vote transfers or a form of Gregory where votes are transferred fractionally does not matter in those cases.
Many exaggerate the effect of STV vote transfers and their complexity As Meslin mentioned in a recent TVO zoom call broadcast on ranked votes, it is not necessary to make voters mar...
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1971 Conservative election victory
Progressive-Conservative
Alberta
Lougheed led the Tories again to victory in [[1975 Alberta general election|1975]], [[1979 Alberta general election|1979]] and [[1982 Alberta general election|1982]], winning landslide majorities each time, with vote tallies of 57 to 63 percent of votes cast.
"Scientific Suffrage" in a 1898 book entitled Effective Voting.
Ontario
1800s
2021 federal election.
Alberta Manitoba BC Alternative Voting ranked ballots preferential voting
Farmers
1952 Alberta election
1955 Alberta election
STV FPTP
Edmonton
STV 1955 Alberta election
Edmonton Calgary
FPTP 1955 Alberta election
1959 Alberta election
1971 Alberta election
1982 Alberta election
Edmonton Calgary
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/1921-canada-s-fptp-system-elected-minority-government
1921 Canadian election
1925 Canadian election
Federal election FPTP
1920 Manitoba election
Vanuatu SNTV appears more fair, balanced than Canada’s FPTP results
[June 17, 2021]
Women on Edmonton city council
Edmonton elections
Edmonton city elections
1920 provincial election STV in Winnipeg
John D. Hunt
John D. Hunt Alberta 1921 election UFA
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