As of September 20, 2021 Justin Trudeau has won his third federal election and has once again formed a minority government with the New Democratic Party, the Conservative party remains the main opposition. Regardless of the election results I’d like to briefly argue that there is a better democratic electoral system than the current system that Canada uses. Specifically New Zealand’s electoral system because it gives the people more targeted power over who they elect at the different levels of government.
The system that Canada uses is referred to as a “first past the post” system but is technically a Single Member Plurality system. Whoever is elected in each ridding goes on to represent that riding in the House of Commons as its Member of Parliament (MP). The party with the most seats forms the government often with another party to form a minority government.
New Zealand’s House of Representatives is elected using the mixed member proportional representation (MMP) system. Each elector has two votes, one for thier local member of Parliament as well as one for a preferred political party. Political parties are represented in Parliament in proportion to the share of votes each party won in the party vote in the general election.
I believe that the mixed member proportional system is a more effective electoral system because eliminates the dilemma of whether you should vote for your local MP or the prime minister allowing you to vote for your preferred candidate at both levels individually. Meaning you have to make less compromises on issues that might affect you locally but not federally or vice versa.
Other benefits as mentioned by Dave Meslin in an interview with CBC on Proportional Representation in Canada were that we would have more choice of parties to chose from because some of the larger parties would split into so smaller parties due to differences within the party. The system would also decrease polarization along with the power of more extreme parties because to create a coalition, the last parties that the bigger parties would look to for support would be the most radical.
The best way to go about getting mixed member proportional representation or even just proportional representation and give the voters the most accurate representation of what they voted for, is to introduce these system first and the municipal levels of government and the provincial and federal levels will soon follow suit.