Fair Vote Canada on Bluesky
Proportional representation doesn’t just change how many seats a party wins, but where.
Whether you’re a Liberal in rural Alberta or a Conservative in downtown Toronto, you get the representation you vote for.
That’s why we love PR-it bridges our divides.
#cdnpoli
IRV is RCV. 2nd election runoff is still a winner take all, but with RCV you could vote Green party even if media tells you that they will finish 4th, but if they had enough 2nd choices in RCV, and media horse race manipulation is eliminated in your first choice, they could still win.
The holy grail you seem to want maximizing for is “party identity” rather than “Unifying maverick exceptionalism” potential. Latter is rare and counter to Canadian political system, but local values and local loyalty could better attract voters independently of national party affiliation. I understand that in practice, all candidates are shills for party. But PR precludes a complete independent of running, it would seem.
This is a good point, I learned from one of your other links. I think from your STV link, you can have multiple candidates from same party included, and then include least bad conservative at 10th choice if you want. Albertans voting for liberal would still only affect an Alberta liberal possibly included in government.
Whatever dysfunction occurred in voting reform committee that caused derailment of RCV was a dysfunction. I get why you could prefer PR
I appreciate your thoughtful response. Let me address each point:
IRV (Instant Runoff Voting) is indeed a form of ranked choice voting, but this doesn’t change its fundamental nature as a winner-take-all system. While it allows you to vote sincerely for your first choice without fear of “wasting” your vote, it still results in only one candidate winning per district, meaning many voters remain unrepresented.
The key difference is that in winner-take-all systems like IRV, a significant portion of ballots (often 40-60%) don’t elect anyone at all. These votes are effectively discarded. In PR systems, virtually all votes contribute to electing someone who shares the voter’s values.
Regarding “party identity” versus independent candidates - this is a common misconception about PR. Systems like Single Transferable Vote (STV) actually make it easier for independents to win seats compared to FPTP. In Ireland, which uses STV, independents regularly win seats. The key is having a reasonable threshold and multi-member districts.
As for local representation, both STV and MMP maintain geographic connection while ensuring proportionality. Under STV, each region has multiple representatives reflecting the diversity of political viewpoints in that area. This provides better regional representation, not worse, as voters are more likely to have at least one MP who shares their values.
The voting reform committee didn’t “derail” RCV - they actually studied various systems extensively and recommended PR because it better fulfills the democratic principle that all citizens deserve equal representation. This wasn’t dysfunction; it was evidence-based policy making. Trudeau rejected their recommendation because he preferred IRV, thereby breaking his promise to have 2015 be the last election under FPTP.
The fundamental question remains: In a democracy, shouldn’t every vote contribute meaningfully to representation, regardless of where you live or who you support? Only PR consistently delivers this basic democratic principle.
I consider it a dysfunction that “letting IRV win” was blocked.
Understand the point. Definitely don’t see it as a dealbreaker for democracy. As a green voter, possible election assistant, possible candidate… I could try to win a seat under IRV, knowing that message/platform matters more than manipulation of “vote wasting”. Platform could still piss off oligarchy that backs different parties, but to voters, saving the world could make Green a 2nd choice, despite their media propaganda supporting oligarchy and against the alternate oligarchy.
Under PR, if the green party accepted me as one of 3 accepted candidates, and I got the most votes out of the Green party, and the Green party got say 20% total of the vote (threshold for a seat), then I could win that seat. Our party’s 3 candidates would be covering a larger riding that used to hold 5 candidates, and so personal campaigning would be more challenging.
There’s a matter of fringe positions that would get represented under PR. Fringe can be avant-garde good, or it can be “Covid doesn’t exist and we should all get it for our own good”. I think PR would be an advantage for our common oligarchist/US/Israel accepted disinformation group think, in getting representation not indebted to CIA, but that is independents rather than parties and their leaders and every parliamentarian swearing a loyalty (their votes) to party leader system. Maybe parties that allow candidates to represent them, give more power to the diversity of candidates, and their opinions, and allow for some independence on CIA “must haves”, but my impression of PR is that it is a much stronger party hierarchy system. Diversity on “alternative medicine” can be allowed, only because it is not a critical (except for Pharma dominance) CIA issue.