The Blue Meanies are not Really a Majority

I think what will get under my skin over the next four years is that Stephen Harper will strut around saying that his government was supported by a majority of Canadians. It wasn't.

Figure it out.

• There are over 34 million Canadians
• 24 million of them are eligible to vote
• Roughly 6 million Canadians voted for Harper's party. 
• About 9 million of us voted for candidates who were not Conservatives. 

So, like it or not Stephen, only about 25% of eligible voters actually supported you. Some majority!

There are a couple of things you can do.

1. Sign Fair Vote Canada's Declaration of Voter's Rights.
2. Remind the Prime Minister of the facts and ask him to change the electoral system 

It will make you feel that you are doing something about our dismal political situation and hopefully you will begin to feel better about things.

John Cleese Explains PR

Canada's electoral system makes very little sense. The first past the post method of electing our parliamentary representatives has been tossed out by most democracies in the world and replaced by some form of Proportional Representation. 

Canadian politicians and pundits argue that it is all too complicated for Canadians to understand.  I for one, have more faith in Canadians' intelligence than most politicians.  

The two large parties in Canada have both taken advantage of the system to form government when most Canadians have actually voted for some other party as their favoured representative. Perhaps that is why they never seem to take the time to explain the options available to us.

A few examples:

• In 1993 the Reform Party won 52 seats with 2.6 million votes. The Progressive Conservatives only won two seats with 2.2 million votes
• The Liberals  got 51% of the seats and formed a majority government in 1997 with just 38% of the popular vote
• In 2004 the New Democrats won 19 seats with 2.1 million votes and Bloc won 54 seats with 1.7 million votes.
• and in the last election, 940,000 green Party voters elected no one while 822,000 Conservative voters in Alberta alone elected 27 MPs

Lucky for us, proportional representation isn't that tough to grasp. If you really want to understand how it all works I offer this short video. It is a bit dated but the principles are the same and who better than John Cleese to explain it, as only he can.

For more information on proportional representation try the Fair Vote Canada site.

Coalition Follow up

We all know that statistics are sent to drive us crazy so I was intrigued by an article I saw this morning about a  pool run by Postmedia and Global News.

The story basically told us that Canadians won't accept a coalition because 55% of Canadians prefer a minority government. So, the conclusion is - coalition bad.

On the other hand 63% of Canadians who bothered to vote, cast their ballots for a party other than the minority government in power. Somehow that is somehow seen as good.

Go figure. We have to start talking about proportional representation before my head explodes.