Political Memes

You guys should really think about changing your voting system.

Lmao -- ooooohhhh why didn't we think of that!

Just snap our fingers and change the system!

The year Trudeau first ran he talked a big game. The Conservative party was unpopular after being in power for a decade and the NDP and Greens were in the best shape they'd been in for quite a while and for the first time it seemed like anybody's game. The NDP/Greens with McNair and May respectively spoke eloquently about the need for representive voting systems and Trudeau on national television during debate made it an election promise for the Liberal party he represented (Liberal here is a brand though the party is pretty generally pretty lower case liberal as well). When he got in despite the support of those other parties it never materialized.

Here in British Columbia trying to capitalize on the sentiments the Provincial government ran a lame horse of a referendum campaign where they brought forward three really complicated systems that largely dealt with how ridings were weighted by representation which was better than nothing but because it took two hours to explain how the three systems worked most people checked out of it and voted for first past the post to remain. It was like it was constructed by acedemics who had never spoken to a person before. They didn't need a referendum. They could have just passed something, any of the three options and we would be better off than we were.

I have remained salty about this since 2017.

This is not a system where institutional changes have much chance of occurring, especially where "tradition" is involved.

Half of the voting population is against anything resembling reform or progress, and only "for" regressive draconian changes. The other half has such a broad difference of opinion on what should be addressed first that they waste their time squabbling about it even when they have control of the executive branch and both parts of the legislative branch. When they do make changes, they make so many compromises and concessions that the changes are effectively small.

You guys should really think about changing your voting system.

Single Transferable Vote, Preference Vote, basically anything works better than FPTP.

This is something that could be fixed at a state level no less, since the states run the elections subject to a handful of federal requirements none of which mandate FPTP voting.