by littlevoter » Sun Jun 08, 2025 5:16 pm
By "we", I refer to Canada, UK, US, and others with the same First-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system. There may be other similar systems that I'm not aware of.
If a party gets 30% of the votes in a country, then it should get 30% of the seats. Otherwise, people's votes are not equal, and one could even say the system is not democratic. Depending on where you live, with FPTP, your vote may not matter at all if your area always votes for X party.
https://www.fairvote.ca/what-is-first-past-the-post/ has a very good overview with many Canadian examples, one of which is that in 2019 the Bloc Quebecois received 32 seats with 7.7% of the vote while the Green Party had 6.5% of the vote and was awarded 3 seats.
Some argue that voters aren't just choosing a party but are choosing a local representative with the FPTP system, and that this local link would be diluted in a proportional system. However, rarely is that local connection actually meaningful, especially federally. Also in ridings where one party always wins, many people know their vote won't make a difference and will not engage at all. There are even mixed-member proportional representation systems that still let you vote for a local representative.
By "we", I refer to Canada, UK, US, and others with the same First-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system. There may be other similar systems that I'm not aware of.
If a party gets 30% of the votes in a country, then it should get 30% of the seats. Otherwise, people's votes are not equal, and one could even say the system is not democratic. Depending on where you live, with FPTP, your vote may not matter at all if your area always votes for X party. https://www.fairvote.ca/what-is-first-past-the-post/ has a very good overview with many Canadian examples, one of which is that in 2019 the Bloc Quebecois received 32 seats with 7.7% of the vote while the Green Party had 6.5% of the vote and was awarded 3 seats.
Some argue that voters aren't just choosing a party but are choosing a local representative with the FPTP system, and that this local link would be diluted in a proportional system. However, rarely is that local connection actually meaningful, especially federally. Also in ridings where one party always wins, many people know their vote won't make a difference and will not engage at all. There are even mixed-member proportional representation systems that still let you vote for a local representative.