Responsible government must mean more than a 4.5 percent ruling block. But under FPTP, as few as 4.5 percent is all that is needed to establish a majority in an elected assembly -- hardly responsible!

Different parts of Canada achieved responsible government at different times. But responsible to whom?

Usually it is said that responsible government is achieved when an elected assembly, not appointed officials, controls the budget.

it is implied that a mere majority of the members in the elected assembly may control the budget and dominate the government. And that is fine -- what more can we expect except for consensus.

But is having an elected assembly enough?

Just casting votes is not enough.

Just electing a most -popular member in separate FPTP contests is not enough if it means a minute portion of voters clan elect the majority that wields power in the assembly.

By saying elected assembly, we assume that most votes will be used to elect assembly members, and that about half of those votes will have elected the majority members.

This happens when FPTP is used if only two candidates compete but as soon as you have three-corned contests, you can see perhaps as few as

100,000 voters

say 25 districts with 4000 voters voting in each

Only two candidates in each winner has at least 50 percent plus 1 in each, so each winner elected with 2001 votes,

winners elected with at least 50,025 votes.

then a majority could be composed in the Assembly of just 13 members with a total of 26,013 votes (about a quarter of votes cast overall).

But if three-cornered contests occur in each district, the winner may have as few as 1/3rd of votes plus 1, or 1334 votes

bringing the winners' total to 33,350 votes overall.

then a majority could be composed in the Assembly of just 13 members with a total of 17,342 votes, about 1/6th of votes cast overall.

Where even more run, such as 7 to nine candidates in a single-winner contest, as in Edmonton city council with its 12 separate single-member wards, the winner's share of votes may be as few as 30%.

and then the winners' share could drop to just 1200 votes in each district, with total winners' share of 30,000,

with the 13-member majority block elected by as few as about 16,000 votes, less than 1/6th of the votes cast.

Plus you have un-competitive contests where it is pretty much known whom will be elected, voter turnout drops and drops till you have as few as less than a third voting, same as the Edmonton city election where only 30.41 percent of eligible voters voted.

With the lower turnout, only 1216 vote in each district, success could come with just 364 votes.

If that is done across the 25 districts, it would mean all winners receive total of just about 9000 votes of the 100,000 eligible voters.

with a majority in the Assembly composed of members who received just 4500 votes, a mere 4.5 percent of the 100,000 eligible voters.

=========================================