On March 26, Quebec Province held a provincial parliamentary election. The Democratic Action Party of Quebec (ADQ), which had held only 4 seats in the last Quebec parliament (out of 125 seats) won 41 seats, making it the 2nd strongest party in the province. The results are: Liberal Party 48 seats, ADQ 41 seats, Party Quebecois 36 seats.
Many of the ADQ candidates who were elected, had no idea they had any chance to be elected, and are inexperienced in politics.
Something similar happened in Ontario Province in the 1990’s, when the New Democratic Party won control of Ontario, again in an election at which no one had dreamed that would happen, and many of the elected members had never considered that they might actually win.
The Canadian experience shows that when ballot access laws, debate practices, and public funding, are all equal, minor parties can do well, even in a system which lacks proportional representation.
The ADQ believes that Quebec should remain part of Canada but that all the provinces should have greater autonomy.
Instead of minor parties doing well some of the time, wouldn’t it be fairer to just have parties receive a share of the seats proportional to the number of votes they get?
The ADP has received a double digit percentage of the votes in previous elections but has only received a handful of seats. If they had, I feel that they would better serve as an opposition party because of the experience they would have acquired.
(I write this without having any particular feelings with regards to the ADP party.)