In my study of past Canadian elections, the weirdest animal I have seen were those of PEI from the 1800s to the 1990s.
PEI had two-member districts where one (Assemblyman) was elected by residents; the other (Legislative Councillor) by property-owners who may or may not have been resident in the district who also voted for the assemblyman, and had right to vote in any district(s) where they owned property.
In one period of time the different members sat in different chambers, then later in just one chamber.
Prince Edward Island (PEI) had two-member districts at the provincial level throughout its history - up to the 1996 election.
The 1996 PEI election was the first election in the province's history to not use multiple-seat districts.
Previously, since 1873, PEI's entry into Confederation, the province had been divided into 15 or 16 districts, each electing two members.
Each district elected a member of the Legislative Assembly and a member of the Legislative Council. In electoral contests Councillor candidates run against Councillor candidates; Assemblyman candidates against Assemblyman candidates.
All eligible voters within a district are able to vote in the election of the Assemblyman; landowners within a district are able to vote in the election of the Councillor. That is, a landowner could vote for a Council candidate in each district in which he or she owned property, and anyone with a Council vote also had an Assembly vote in each district. Thus, some landowners, if they were extremely mobile, could theoretically cast 30 (or 32) votes, while a non-landowner could cast just one vote, in the district in which he or she resided. (Later the right of multiple-voting in multiple districts was extended to the spouse of the landowner.) (http://www.revparl.ca/11/2/11n2_88e_Driscoll.pdf)
Each contest is/was conducted through First past the post.
The old districts made sense on the ground. Historically each county was divided into five districts. The province has three counties, so that made 15 districts. PEI had 15 districts until 1966, then a 16th district (Queens 6th (Charlottetown)) was added in 1966.
Each district contest sees about 3,000 votes cast. Voter turn-out is high. Historically 80 percent of eligible voters voted. Such small scale representation is the closest Canada comes to direct democracy, with most voters having personal contact with his or her member.
Until 1893, PEI was bicameral with the Assembly sitting separately from the Legislative Council This made for difficulties when opposing parties held majorities in the two houses.
Since 1893 the two groups of elected members sit together in one chamber.
At that time, the right to property vote and multiple voting was debated but retained. It would stay in use until 1996. That year PEI converted to 27 single-member districts, electing one MLA each, through FPTP.
(PEI brought in secret voting in 1913.)
The dual First Past The Post elections were not PR. This was shown starkly in 1935 when one party took all the seats in the province. The election was a two-party fight. The winner in each contest received a majority of the vote used, whether citizen or landowner. But the result was not proportional - the Conservative Party received 42 percent of the vote but took no seats. This is a stark example of the dis-proportionality that can occur even where the winners receive a majority of the vote in the district. (Note that Alternative Voting (IRV) (what many call ranked votes) under certain circumstances could produce just as dis-proportional results as the result in PEI in 1935.)
And the result under 27 single-member districts has produced dis-proportional results also.
One positive result of the election was the election of the first Green Party MLA in the province’s history. Perhaps this was an effect of having small districts.
Souris PC 45 percent of the vote. Lib 29 percent
Georgetown-Pownall PC 49 percent of the vote. Green 28 percent
Montague Kilmuir PC 46 percent of the vote. Lib 27 percent
Belfast Murray PC 53 percent of the vote. Green 27 percent majority
Stratford-Keppoch PC 43 percent of the vote. Lib 30 percent
Stanhope-Marshfield PC 40 percent of the vote. Lib 36 percent
Charlottetown-Winslowe Lib 42 percent of the vote. Green 31 percent
Charlottetown-Victoria Park Green 41 percent of the vote. Lib 28 percent
Charlottetown-West Royalty Lib 35 percent of the vote. Green 32 percent
Cornwall-Meadowbank Lib 48 percent of the vote. Green 33 percent
Rustico-Emerald PC 58 percent of the vote. Lib 27 percent majority
Kensington-Malpeque PC 62 percent of the vote. Green 25 percent majority
Summerside-South Green 44 percent of the vote. Lib 32 percent
Evangeline Lib 45 percent of the vote. Green 31 percent
If PEI returned to multiple-seat districts, but constrained each voter to casting just one vote, the result would doubtless be more proportional than that.
And the small size of PEI districts mean that grouping districts is fairly easy. Grouping districts to form multi-seat districts - is the fundamental base of STV or regional or province-wide MMP.
Taking that first step would be easy in PEI.
PEI’s counties could again be the base for a scheme of MM districts.
Kings County is only 1700 sq. kms. in size.
Queens and Prince Counties are both about 2000 sq. kms. in size.
PEI overall is 6000 sq. kms. in size.
Even a district covering the whole province of PEI would be smaller than rural provincial districts in Alberta.
Alberta is 640,000 sq. kms.
87 districts cover the whole province, but most of these are just in Edmonton and Calgary so cover only a very small amount of the overall territory.
41 districts cover almost all the province - so about 15,000 sq. kms per district on the average.
The average rural MLA in Alberta is alone responsible for an area more than twice the size of the whole province of PEI.
In PEI six MLAs represent Charlottetown. This leaves 21 to cover the rest of the island. Each county could be a multi-member district with 7 MLAs on the average. The 7 or so members would collectively represent an area that is less than half the size of the district represented by one MLA in Alberta.
And with 7 MLAS elected through regional MMP or STV, a high portion of votes would be represented - a much fairer result that we see under the present system where as much as 65 percent of the votes cast in a district are ignored.
in 2019 PEI election the MLAs were elected with just a relatively small number of the votes.
Some of them were elected with only 40 or so percent of the votes in their district.
the winner in Souris-Elmira received just 1300 votes
Georgetown-Pownall 1500 votes
Montague 1400 votes
Charlotteown-Winslowe 1400 votes
Kensington 2000 votes
This sampling of five districts produced an average of 1500 votes.
If this was the same across the province, the 27 MLAs were elected with about 41,000 votes.
But under a STV election, where typically 80 or so per cent of the voters see their vote actually used to elect someone, we could expect PEI's 27 MLAs to be elected by about 67,000 votes.
If PEI gave STV a chance, the benefits STV would not have to be proven through statistics. It would only take a simple polling of citizens - are you satisfied with the result of the recent STV election?
If a majority of about 80 percent say they are happy, then that would prove STV effectiveness.
If only about half say they are happy, then STV had not produced a more fair result than the previous FPTP elections.
But if STV is given a chance, I expect a much high proportion of voters to be happy - to see that their vote had been used to elect their choice or at least someone they preferred over the other candidates - than is happening today in FPTP elections
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