So I've been reading much of the pro-MMP and anti-MMP blogposting and op-eds and I don't think anyone has mentioned the ultimate abuse case of FPTP, the 1987 New Brunswick provincial election. Here are the results of that years popular vote.
Liberals: 60.4%
Progressive Conservative: 28.6%
New Democrats: 10.6%
Other: 0.4%
Clearly a huge victory for the Frank McKenna led Liberals, a clear majority and a clear mandate. So how many seats did they win? All 58 of them! If you were part of the 40% that did not vote for the Liberals you got zero representation - it is the ultimate example of wasted votes.Think about this a little further keeping our Westminster Parliament system in mind. There was no leader of the opposition sitting in Parliament or any opposition members to challenge the government in the legislature. If I remember correctly they had to make special compensation to allow the opposition leader into the House to ask questions just so Parliament wasn't a complete farce.
Think it can't happen again, just watch the Newfoundland and Labrador election going on right now.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Political Staples : It Doesn't Get Worse Than This
Originally posted at Political Staples. A reminder to those conservatives that hold FPTP as the model of democracy.
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3 comments:
I don't think that's so much a case of "abuse" as just a glaring example of the flaw we're (hopefully) addressing now.
If the Conservatives, too, had won all the seats, I don't expect they'd say, "Hey! This isn't fair, let's get some Liberals in here!"
That's not to say I disagree with the point -- of course it's a sad state of affairs when 40% of your voters have to deal with the futility of voicing their opinion. But I don't think Frank McKenna and the Liberals can really be accused of doing something wrong there. (Many of the votes towards them also had to do with the scandals surrounding the PC leader at the time.)
Cailean,
The example wasn't really presented to highlight an abuse by the Liberal Party, nor do I think the argument presented suggests that.
One of the arguments put forward by conservatives supporting the status quo is that FPTP is democratic. This example shows that FPTP can clearly not be democratic. The reverse examples are also available (a minority electing a majority or a second place party forming a majority - False Majorities).
There are clearly too many problems with this system for us to keep it around.
It would be equally wrong if the Conservatives took the entire legislature; you are correct.
Oh yeah, I'm not knocking MMP here. I'll be voting for it next month. I just thought the use of the word "abuse" was a bit of a strech.
I wouldn't call FPTP undemocratic either, since you're still electing your representative locally. You're just not forming a correctly proportional government, so when you lose, you lose big. It's mediocre democracy, but it's still democracy.
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