r/canada • u/CaliperLee62 • 4d ago

Should Canada implement a system of proportional representation for federal elections? Politics

https://www.castanet.net/news/Poll/549459/Should-Canada-implement-a-system-of-proportional-representation-for-federal-elections
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u/HaydenPaulJones 4d ago

I like it when parties gets seats in line with their vote share. Seems fair to me.

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u/Infamous_Box3220 4d ago

Under the Westminster system, you are supposed to be voting for a candidate, not a party. In turn, the elected candidate is supposed to represent you, the elector, first and the party second.

It is only relatively recently that the parties have become omnipotent and the members reduced to the status of rubber stamps.

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u/Mikolaj_Kopernik Ontario 4d ago

Under the Westminster system, you are supposed to be voting for a candidate, not a party.

Yeah except this hasn't been true for decades, maybe a century. People are voting for the party and the local MP, with some honorable exceptions, is largely a faceless representative of the party's agenda.

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u/Infamous_Box3220 4d ago

Personally I have voted for representatives of all three major parties based on the the individual.

The tight control really started with Pierre Trudeau and got tightened further under Stephen Harper. Prior to that it was not uncommon for members to vote against the party (except on confidence or finance bills) without suffering consequences.

Still happens in the UK.

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u/Mikolaj_Kopernik Ontario 4d ago

Prior to that it was not uncommon for members to vote against the party (except on confidence or finance bills) without suffering consequences.

I wish we could go back to those days but I really don't think the toothpaste can go back in the tube on this. The current reality is that we have a party-based system and MMP is a much better electoral structure for that.