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Tom Monto

PR good for voter turnout

Calgary adopted STV for its city elections in 1917. It was the first city in Canada to adopt the district-level PR system, by then being used in Tasmania government elections and in some city elections across the old British Empire and in Ashtabula, Ohio, in the old U.S. of A.


Immediately voter turn-out improved. It doubled between 1917 and 1922.

in 1916 (the last time plurality system was used) 4591 people voted,

by 1922 13,483 voted.

In Dec. 1922 Calgary cast the highest vote in proportion to its population of all the cities of western Canada though the temperature in Calgary was -22 F below. This was of course not the case in all city STV elections, for at that time STV was also being used in Winnipeg,

Saskatchewan's four cities (Regina, Saskatoon, North Battleford and Moose Jaw)

and

in BC - in Vancouver, West Vancouver and South Vancouver,

where the turnout was not so large.


But in Calgary's case the adoption of a more fair electoral system did produce increased interest in municipal affairs.


As Alderman Fred White noted, "it is some encouragement for a man to get out and vote knowing while he feels that he is not amongst the majority that the minority representative for whom he wishes to vote can be elected under PR provided his supporters cast a total of votes equalling one quota, whereas under the old system he would be inclined to say "well, I'm in the minority. It's no use for me to bother my head about going to vote." (Hoag and Hallett, Proportional Representation (1924), p. 225)


This likely applies whether the system of PR is STV or Mixed Member Proportional Representation, or even STV and MMP.


Fairness creates more fair representation and more excitement and higher turn-out which in turn creates more satisfaction and higher turn out again.


While in Edmonton city elections, turn-out is low, less than 40 percent of eligible voters turning out to vote, and more than half the votes are disregarded with about 96,000 votes being used to elect our 12 councillors while 101,000 were not used to elect anyone.


Let's do it!

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