Durning: Here are some compelling arguments from the Sightline Institute in Seattle for proportional representation.
Some fearmongers claim that ProRep will empower extremists, particularly the white nationalists of the Far Right. Their reasoning is that smaller parties can win seats under ProRep, whereas two major parties usually dominate politics with FPTP. But experience shows that Far Right elements can gain traction inside big umbrella parties, while mainstream voters and officials can easily exclude the Far Right from power when they are contained in a clearly labeled party.
Unfortunately, extremists are on the rise around the world, from Austria to Italy and in the United States, due to a variety of issues, including immigration and austerity. FPTP won’t keep them out and might even open the door wider by giving power to those with less than a majority of support. No voting system can guarantee protection, but ProRep forces candidates and parties to win majority support in order to gain majority power. …
ProRep is a better guarantee of the will of the majority
Some ProRep countries have seen small parties gain power, but that is often due to the design of the ProRep systems letting tiny parties in. The three ProRep options on the BC ballot are all carefully designed for BC, and none would let parties with less than 5 percentof the vote win any seats. With ProRep, Donald Trump and Doug Ford wouldn’t have been able to take power unless they could make common cause with officials representing a majority of the voters. In many ProRep countries, Far Right parties have gained seats but not power because they’ve been shut out of majority ruling coalitions.
BC voters concerned about the rise of the extremists can vote for ProRep, confident that it will give more voters a voice and lead to better policies coming out of Victoria. BC voters thinking about marking the box for FPTP in October should worry that it opens the door for someone with just minority support, like Trump, to take over the province.
Interestingly, the City of Vancouver has a form of PR – an at large system for electing Councillors – and the result this time was three Green councillors out of a total of ten. My guess is that even one Green councillor might not have been elected under a FPTP / Ward system (roughly equivalent to the current provincial model).
I like that you point this out. The mooted changes in the municipal and provincial voting systems are in the opposite direction, and some of the same people are advocating both changes. Which seems to indicate to me that it isn’t actually the voting system that folks are dissatisfied with but something else.
The Green Party ran three council candidates. All three were elected. It would be interesting to see the Greens and One City each run five council candidates next time. Of course that depends on how well they get along with the single One City councillor over the next four years.