The three-way race did materliase and the PQ won the most seats, 54, with 31.94% 0f the votes, while the Liberals with 0.7% less votes, 31.21 won 50 seats and CAQ with27.06% won only 19 seats. QS picked an additional seat, with 6.03% of votes. The CAQ fared the worst under the first past the post electoral system.
First past the post with its single- member cocstituency by plurality favors parties that have a concentrated body of votes. The PQ with its strength with francos and in the regions and the Liberals with its concentrated anglos and allophones vote benefitted but the CAQ with its dispersed support suffered. This distortion is not good for democratic politics or for democracy. Voters become disenchanted and turned-off when they see that their votes are less important than those of other parties. Voices that should be heard and heeded are neglected and either drop out or seek non-democratic means.
The electoral system, a legacy of the British, unitary, parliamentary system has to be changed to respond/ reflect to the reality of a (federal), regionally-divided, multi-cultural siociety or risk the being unrepresentative, unresponsive and a threat to the democratic process.
There have been talks, especially from the losing parties about the need to change the system...the NDP federally and the QS provincially and also by the citizen's group Fair Vote Canada. ( I guess that CAQ must be for it too)
Proportional Representation which offers greater mathematical accuracy and is thus more democratic, in that it truly reflects voters' preferences is one alternative, which is being used in many countries , Spain, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland Scandinavia etc. In each of these cases there are variations in order to eliminate certain weaknesses, such as too many fringe parteies with very small amount of votes being elected., the "splintering effect" which can make governing impossible because too many parties win seats and thus the inability to form an effective government. Germany uses a hybrid system, whereby half of the members are elected bt first past the post and the other half by P.R. with the proviso that a party must have at least 5% of the votes to qualify for a seat. France uses a two-ballot system. In all these cases the purpose is to elect a representative assembly/parliament, reflecting voters choice.
I will discuss the pros and cons of each at another time.
First past the post with its single- member cocstituency by plurality favors parties that have a concentrated body of votes. The PQ with its strength with francos and in the regions and the Liberals with its concentrated anglos and allophones vote benefitted but the CAQ with its dispersed support suffered. This distortion is not good for democratic politics or for democracy. Voters become disenchanted and turned-off when they see that their votes are less important than those of other parties. Voices that should be heard and heeded are neglected and either drop out or seek non-democratic means.
The electoral system, a legacy of the British, unitary, parliamentary system has to be changed to respond/ reflect to the reality of a (federal), regionally-divided, multi-cultural siociety or risk the being unrepresentative, unresponsive and a threat to the democratic process.
There have been talks, especially from the losing parties about the need to change the system...the NDP federally and the QS provincially and also by the citizen's group Fair Vote Canada. ( I guess that CAQ must be for it too)
Proportional Representation which offers greater mathematical accuracy and is thus more democratic, in that it truly reflects voters' preferences is one alternative, which is being used in many countries , Spain, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland Scandinavia etc. In each of these cases there are variations in order to eliminate certain weaknesses, such as too many fringe parteies with very small amount of votes being elected., the "splintering effect" which can make governing impossible because too many parties win seats and thus the inability to form an effective government. Germany uses a hybrid system, whereby half of the members are elected bt first past the post and the other half by P.R. with the proviso that a party must have at least 5% of the votes to qualify for a seat. France uses a two-ballot system. In all these cases the purpose is to elect a representative assembly/parliament, reflecting voters choice.
I will discuss the pros and cons of each at another time.
