L-Girl over at WMTC got me turned onto Democratic Space where I can get my visual fix on the Canadian Election, much like Electoral-Vote does it for me for the American one. The Graphic below is from DS's website showing the current polling numbers and how it turns out in the number of seats in Parliament.
| Update 10 (28 Sept) | |
| CURRENT PROJECTION / NATIONAL |
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| CONSERVATIVE | LIBERAL | NDP | BLOC | GREEN | OTHERS |
| 36.7% | 24.5% | 19.6% | 9.4% | 8.9% | 1.0% |
| 140 | 82 | 35 | 49 | 0 | 2 |
| 155 SEATS REQUIRED FOR MAJORITY GOVERNMENT | |||||
Now, if Parliament allotted seats on proportional representation, this is what the seat distribution would look like:
IF IT WAS PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION
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| CONSERVATIVE | LIBERAL | NDP | BLOC | GREEN | OTHERS |
| 36.7% | 24.5% | 19.6% | 9.4% | 8.9% | 1.0% |
| 114 | 76 | 61 | 29 | 28 | 2 |
Think about that for a moment
It makes me feel like weeping.
Posted by: PALGOLAK | 01 October 2008 at 01:30 PM
Beautiful Nick, thanks for posting. This shows us exactly what we must fight for and why.
Posted by: L-girl | 04 October 2008 at 01:20 PM
Aside from the obvious unfairness, the projected results allow only for a Conservative minority government, while the proportional results would also open up the possibility of a Liberal/NDP/Green majority coalition. These guys would get along if they had to.
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Posted by: Wayne Smith | 04 October 2008 at 02:39 PM
Actually, based on party behaviour in the last Parliament, the current projection is for an effective Tory majority of 114 against 84 opposition members with 82 abstainers.
Posted by: rww | 04 October 2008 at 03:07 PM
If Canada had proportional representation we would still have party leaders whipping their MP's into representing the will of the party over the will of those who elected the MP's wouldn't we?
Sure, the party make up in the House would be representative of the vote, but that would not make representative of the electorate would it?
Posted by: stageleft | 04 October 2008 at 08:52 PM
Great post!
And l-girl said it perfectly that this "shows us exactly what we must fight for and why".
Join the fight at fairvote.ca.
Hope to work with you guys for democracy in the future.
Posted by: Partisan non-partisan | 05 October 2008 at 01:04 PM
I'm afraid this shows clearly why PR will probably never work in Canada. Do you see it? The only party that is significantly punished is the BLOC. Quebeckers will never go for this and if they don't go for this it will not fly. One solution might be to have special electoral rules for Quebec but I dont see the ROC going for this, do you? I'm afraid it's a non starter.
Posted by: Puddleglum | 16 October 2008 at 04:09 PM