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David Akin: Trudeau should retain

rst-past-the-post voting
PROVINCE
OPINION
More from Province
Opinion

Across the country, the winds of electoral reform

are swirling.
In Ontario, the

Published:
April 7, 2016
Updated:
April 7, 2016 12:12 PM PDT
Filed Under:
The Province Opinion

provincial
government is set
to allow
municipalities to
change the way
city councils are
elected. In Ottawa,
Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau
has vowed time
and again to do away with our first-past-the-postsystem.
If there is to be change, my first hope is that voters
are consulted via a referendum with a clearly
worded question that precisely spells out the
proposed new alternative.
Even with such precision, though, Im certain Id
end up voting in favour of our poor old first-pastthe-post or FPTP system, the one thats been
with us throughout our history and has, on the
whole, done an excellent job of producing the
kinds of governments that have made Canada one
of the envies of the world.
I am partial to FPTP mostly because it is better
than the two leading alternatives at doing two
things.
First, it is best at binding an elected representative
to her constituents. And this should be the chief
goal making sure a city councillor or an MP truly
represents the group of people who sent her into
office.

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Any system that involves a proportional vote, in

which legislative seats are assigned based on the
popular vote, weaken the connection between
representative and constituent and give too much
power to political parties and to leaders offices,
who control the lists from which each partys quota
of legislators is drawn.
Second, our democracy often finds its best
solutions when there is a sharp clash of clearly
defined ideas. We need politicians advancing and
arguing bold, sometimes radical, ideas.
We want left versus right, federalist versus
nationalist, centralizer versus decentralizer all
competing loudly and creatively for votes.
A ranked ballot system of electing representatives,
another favourite of electoral reformers, would
have the effect of watering down those debates and
turning our politics into centrist mush as every
contestant seeks to be everyone elses second
choice in the hopes of a win.
Who would want a system where all candidates
profess their love for purple only to find the
eventual winner is actually a true lover of red or
blue? Most voters would feel cheated if the winner
veered off that mushy centrist path.
First-past-the-post has neither of those
deficiencies. It is best at connecting the
constituent to the representative and allows
encourages even bold political debate.
So lets put aside this idea that electoral reform will
solve any perceived shortcomings in our
democracy for there are some and focus on
democratic reform.
Strengthening legislatures, cleaning up political
finance, being more creative with new Internetbased technologies all of that will strengthen our
democracy.
Ditching the FPTP election system could only
weaken it.
David Akin is a Postmedia columnist based in
Ottawa.

The editorial pages editor is Gordon Clark, who

can be reached at gclark@postmedia.com. Letters
to the editor can be sent
to provletters@theprovince.com.

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