2003-07-20

Rick Anderson is correct to criticize pollsters for pronouncing elections over before they are even called. He misses one vital point however. The reason the Alliance, and the Bloc for that matter, have done well in the last two elections has little to do with their levels of support.

Our first past the post system does a great disservice to Canada because it gives large numbers of seats to parties with strong regional support while under representing parties with a broad base of support from coast to coast to coast. That is why the Tories and the NDP, both of which score well across Canada, end up well behind the Alliance and the Bloc (which does not even have candidates outside of Quebec) in terms of seats.

In the upcoming provincial election, your polls show the Liberals with a reasonable lead over the Tories. In addition, that brings up a second problem with our electoral system. The number of seats a party takes changes dramatically between 35% and 40%. Small shifts in popularity can lead to big changes in representation. The 10% drop in support the Tories have suffered could lead to them losing half of their seats. That is why Tories are out looking for other work.

The first past the post system also forces people to guess which candidate has the best chance of defeating the party they really do not like. Rather than voting for the party that best embodies their beliefs, voters are often forced to choose what they believe may be the lesser of two evils. Otherwise, their votes may be discarded - you are only represented if you voted for the winner.

It is time that we admitted that our electoral system needs updating. The NDP's publicpower platform calls for implementing a modern proportional representation system. Everyone's vote will count and people will be free to vote according to their beliefs. We need this in order to restore confidence in our electoral system.

Gary Dale, Provincial NDP Candidate
Scarborough East