Why Vote Yes? - Short Version
2 reasons:
Fairness.
It is only fair that the number of seats a party wins in an election should be reasonably similar to the number of votes it received. It is not fair for a party to get all but two of the seats when 42% of the people in the province didn't vote for them. It's not fair for a party to get 12% of the vote and not elect a single member. It is not fair for one party to form a majority government when the other party got more votes than they did. All these examples of unfairness are drawn from just the last 2 provincial elections. Our election results will never be fair as long as we stick with the old system.
Power.
As much as possible, power should reside with voters. Switching to STV will give voters more power in two key ways:
1) Voters can choose between different candidates from the same party. Instead of having to vote for the one person the NDP or Liberals decided to run in your riding, you can choose which NDP or Liberal candidate to vote for. This gives you the power to reward a candidate who represents your riding well and punish them if they don't.
2) If you want to vote for a smaller party, you don't have to worry that you are wasting your vote because if your first choice is eliminated, your vote will go to your second choice. This gives you the power to vote for who you really want and still express a preference among the other parties.
Opponents of STV will tell you that the votes shouldn't be counted fairly because people can't be trusted to vote properly so as to elect a majority government. Or because too many people won't vote properly and will elect candidates from parties other than the NDP or the Liberals. Or they'll say that the system is too complicated and you'll never be able to understand it - even though people in Ireland have been using it for almost 100 years.
Basically they're saying that the new system (STV) is a bad idea because the voters (you) are not smart enough to figure it out and can't be trusted to vote for the 'right' people. I disagree.
Not convinced / want more details? Read the long version.
Fairness.
It is only fair that the number of seats a party wins in an election should be reasonably similar to the number of votes it received. It is not fair for a party to get all but two of the seats when 42% of the people in the province didn't vote for them. It's not fair for a party to get 12% of the vote and not elect a single member. It is not fair for one party to form a majority government when the other party got more votes than they did. All these examples of unfairness are drawn from just the last 2 provincial elections. Our election results will never be fair as long as we stick with the old system.
Power.
As much as possible, power should reside with voters. Switching to STV will give voters more power in two key ways:
1) Voters can choose between different candidates from the same party. Instead of having to vote for the one person the NDP or Liberals decided to run in your riding, you can choose which NDP or Liberal candidate to vote for. This gives you the power to reward a candidate who represents your riding well and punish them if they don't.
2) If you want to vote for a smaller party, you don't have to worry that you are wasting your vote because if your first choice is eliminated, your vote will go to your second choice. This gives you the power to vote for who you really want and still express a preference among the other parties.
Opponents of STV will tell you that the votes shouldn't be counted fairly because people can't be trusted to vote properly so as to elect a majority government. Or because too many people won't vote properly and will elect candidates from parties other than the NDP or the Liberals. Or they'll say that the system is too complicated and you'll never be able to understand it - even though people in Ireland have been using it for almost 100 years.
Basically they're saying that the new system (STV) is a bad idea because the voters (you) are not smart enough to figure it out and can't be trusted to vote for the 'right' people. I disagree.
Not convinced / want more details? Read the long version.
posted by Declan at
6:59 PM
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