Towards a Better Future

Is something wrong?

As we witnessed in our last Alberta election, First Past the Post elections are adversarial and ugly.
These elections result in well over half of the voters not being represented by a person that shares their values and ideas.

It is truly sad that well intentioned political leaders on all levels of government believe that the best way to get ahead is by putting down, belittling, or even demonize their opponents. These adversarial attitudes are infiltrating our social discourse, and even our relationships with family and friends show the effects of this polarizing and “Us vs Them” thinking.

Is this how we are to live in community with each other?

Is this the leadership example we want to give our young people?

Is this how we propose to solve the complex problems our children will face because of our past short-sighted selfishness?

We need to remember that our political “opponents” are our neighbours and fellow Canadians, who all are doing their part to make Canada a place for all of us to thrive in. We appeal to our political parties and leaders to be inclusive of all members of the community, not just of “your” supporters.

The requisite speech of the winner of a false majority declaring they will govern for all people sounds empty and phony after attacking and belittling the other party leaders, and thereby their voters. The great promises made to get the most votes under FPP elections are often reneged on due to obvious financial constraints, leaving the average voter cynical and disengaged.

In first past the post, swing ridings are getting disproportionate attention, and are susceptible to undue influence from the political parties and special interest groups, both national and foreign. Whereas with proportional representation each seat in parliament requires the same number of votes, and attention is more or less equally distributed.

Safe ridings in FPTP do not get any attention, but are susceptible to undue influence from political and other interests on the candidate nomination process for the dominant party.
With FPTP less than 40% of the voters are actually represented in parliament by an MP they voted for, whether that MP is part of the governing party, or the opposition.

Having an MP that does not share your political views, and therefore is not representing your position is not democracy, but rather a perversion of democracy.

What can we do?

To really get consistently cooperative politics with effective voter engagement requires an electoral system that ensures that the percent of the votes cast for a party is reflected in the percentage of the seats that party receives. The great majority of effective democracies use some form of proportional representation.

Contrary to what opponents say, minority governments are not bad governments, even without a coalition or other agreements. Any minority government needs to carefully consider and heed the wishes of the opposition parties to avoid losing power through a non-confidence vote. In effect a minority government governs with all voters’ wishes in mind!

What about the nay-sayers?

So, who could ever be against having coalition governments? The sad truth is that our own major political party leaderships do not wish to cooperate and share the political power in a coalition, as long as they see a chance to form a (false) majority government. Also, do not underestimate the push back from business and other special interest groups who do not like coalitions because they are harder to influence.

Scare tactics and misinformation come from both these sources in order to maintain the status quo. Their argument is that it “would not be good for us”. However, their “us” does not include the average citizen. Citizens are best served by proportional representation. The fact is that 80% of the developed world is governed by stable and cooperative coalition governments, and they fare well by it.

The old argument about Israel and Italy having trouble with having coalition governments rings hollow, as Israel deals with fundamentalist religious issues, and the hidden influence of criminal organisations in Italy make governing those countries problematic for any democratic system.