From the St. Albert Gazette 2016:
Not so fast: a history of electoral reform in Canada
For nearly as long as Canada has been a country, there have been those looking to change the electoral system.
Feb 12, 2016 11:00 PM By: St. Albert Gazette
...
Provincial electoral reform isn't a thing of the distant past, either. Prince Edward Island changed to the single member plurality system in 1996, abolishing a dual member system that had been the small province's traditional way of electing provincial politicians. [You could also mention BC's 1990 switch from mixture of multi-member districts and single-member districts to a system that solely uses single-member districts.]
No change yet
Cries for systematic reform have continued to occasionally crop up over the years. There have been a series of government task forces and commissions that have included looks at change, like former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau's Pepin-Robarts Task Force on Canadian Unity, which suggested an increased number of MPs and that the extra seats should be filled from party lists, rather than constituency elections.
But, despite promises in throne speeches, and committees and reports that have followed, none have actually instigated an actual change. The 1989 Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing, put together under Brian Mulroney's government, even specifically excluded the idea of examining electoral systems.
Provincial attempts
More headway has been made on reforming the provincial electoral systems, which all currently use the first past the post system.
In the early 2000s, several provinces started exploring the idea of electoral system reform yet again, though none have ended up successfully negotiating a switch.
Quebec appointed an estates general on the reform of democratic institutions. That commission recommended regional proportional representation and a bill was drafted, but was shelved.
In 2004, British Columbia put together a citizen's assembly, a group of 160 people which drew on representatives from every constituency practically randomly. They recommended a form of single transferable voting, and in the first referendum it garnered 57 per cent of voters and 77 of 79 ridings' support, failing to crack the needed "supermajority." A second referendum in 2009 saw support drop dramatically to 39 per cent.
Ontario, New Brunswick and P.E.I. all also examined the issue in the early 2000s, but none ended up changing the system. Prince Edward Island is once again referendum-bound in 2016, looking at proportional representation, preferential voting or keeping first-past-the-post.
Steve Patten, a political science professor from the University of Alberta, said the activities in so many provinces means that "an awful lot of Canadians have already spent some time thinking on these issues."
The discussions, votes and public education might have helped pave the way for the electoral reform discussion Canada seems destined to have under Justin Trudeau's leadership.
"I think one of the things that happens sometimes in Canadian politics is experimentation at the provincial level can make things more possible at the federal level," Patten said.
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Well done, St. Albert Gazette.
except for the fact you did not mention that Alberta and Manitoba actually did elect some of their MLAs through pro-rep (STV) from the 1920s to the 1950s.
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