Canada is seriously looking at electoral reform. Fair Vote Canada favors proportional representation for House of Commons elections. Vote Canada recently released a study, describing the three best types of p.r. for Canada, and explaining how each one works.
Fair Vote Canada is opposed to any system of proportional representation that does not permit voters to vote for individual candidates. Thus all three recommended systems encompass that principle.
The three types recommended are: (1) Mixed Member Proportional (MMP), used in Germany, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales; (2) Single Transferrable Vote (STV), used in Ireland, Malta, parts of Great Britain and a few U.S. cities: (3) Rural-Urban, which would be a new form and which is essentially a combination of single-member districts in sparsely-populated areas and multi-members in densely-populated areas.
Here is a the Report. It has links to Appendices which explain each system. The Report itself makes the case for proportional representation in general. If you are interested in p.r. but have always wanted to understand it better, this document is an excellent reference. It is clear and doesn’t depend on computer presentation; it can be printed and disseminated on paper. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
The rotted Brits infected Canada with single member gerrymander districts and plurality winners after they conquered Canada in the 1760s.
New Zealand, another ex-Brit colony with SMGDAPW now has P.R.
SLOOOOOW progress to get P.R. and nonpartisan App.V. — in ALL regimes.
Simple Proportionality:
Keep the existing ridings, or increase a bit based on the cube root rule (to 332, currently).
Everyone who runs and receives 3% of the popular vote in their riding is elected as a provincial delegate, and has a weighted vote equal to the number of individual popular votes they receive.
The provincial delegates in each province meet and choose the MPs that represent them. This might occur on an annual basis, or to fill vacancies. Larger provinces might do this on a regional basis (say 30 ridings, so that 3% would be enough to elect one MP). These elections could be by STV, or since the meetings of the provincial delegates would be in person, using a multi-round election. Votes of the provincial delegates would be transferred to the MPs. Each province and territory would be guaranteed three MPs to provide political diversity, but would exercise a fractional vote.
If the provincial delegates became dissatisfied with their party’s MPs they could vote for others, or individual delegates could even change their party support. Independents might coalesce to elect some of them, or would at least be free agents with respect to choosing the MPs.
This system compensates for variation in riding size, since the weight of provincial delegates and MPs is based on the number of popular votes they receive. Ridings could recognize real communities and be relatively stable over time.
Sorry – most legislative bodies have fixed sizes — due to local geometry in legislative buildings — esp. office spaces.
Each district = 1 or more political subdivisions or part of 1 political subdivision — square -hish.
Vote for ONE.
Elect more than ONE in each district — perhaps 5.
Loser votes are moved to a winner in any district via pre-election loser candidate rank order lists.
Each winner to have a Voting Power equal to the final votes that he/she gets.
ALL voters get represented – both majority rule DEMOCRACY and minority representation.
Difficult ONLY for math MORONS with AREA fixations in their math MORON brains.
More office buildings can be built.