CLIPPING: Licia Corbella: Voting system handed phony victories to Libe

January 1, 2006

Fair Vote escapes Canadians
Minority tyranny fuels Paul Martin's failure to beat western
alienation
By Licia Corbella

Perhaps the most dangerous and important promise Prime Minister Paul
Martin has broken -- and he has broken many -- is also the most
intangible.

"I am proud," said Martin in June 2003, "to be part of a government
that is determined to address the very real sense of alienation that
exists in British Columbia and across the West, and I have declared
plainly that, if I fail as prime minister to diminish that feeling at
the end of my mandate, then I feel I will have failed."

Feel away, Prime Minister.

You have failed.

Remember how he also said he would allow parliamentary oversight of
candidates for the Supreme Court of Canada, greater power to MPs on
committees and free votes in the House of Commons to help correct the
"democratic deficit," a term he coined?

He broke every one of those promises.

In fact, one of the first things he did upon becoming prime minister
was to limit debate in the House of Commons, invoke closure and take
away opposition days as well.

Concrete evidence of the growing threat of western alienation
occurred in the summer when Western Standard magazine conducted a
scientific poll asking: "Do you agree with the following statement:
'Western Canadians should begin to explore the idea of forming their
own country?'"

The poll, conducted by Lethbridge political scientist Faron Ellis,
found 36% of westerners and more than 42% of Albertans polled said
yes.

That is with a clear question, unlike the convoluted question asked
of Quebecers in the 1995 referendum on sovereignty, where fully 30%
of those who voted "yes" believed, had their side won, Quebec would
have remained in Canada.

The most troubling aspect of the Western Standard poll is support for
exploring the idea of separation was highest among those aged between
19 and 29 -- more than 37%.

In other words, it's not just grumpy, old oil men who lost everything
because of the NEP who want to make the break. It's those who have no
memory of it whatsoever, who do.

So, how can this country that believes it is so "regionalized"
recognize we have more in common than it appears.

If we look at this country's federal, and even provincial, electoral
maps, you would be right to think virtually all Albertans are
conservatives, almost all Ontarians are liberals and almost all
Quebecers are Bloc supporters.

But Alberta is no more painted blue than Ontario is painted red or
Quebec is filled with Bloc-heads. Those monochromatic maps are a
distortion of Canadians' true political makeup caused by our
antiquated first-past-the-post electoral system designed for
two-party elections.

Consider these facts, assembled by Fair Vote Canada:

n In the June 2004 federal election, the Conservatives got more votes
in Quebec than in Saskatchewan, but 13 Conservative MPs were elected
in Saskatchewan and none in Quebec.

n Half a million Green Party voters elected no one, while fewer
Liberal voters in Atlantic Canada elected 22 MPs.

n The NDP received more votes than the Bloc, but the Bloc won nearly
three times as many seats and holds the balance of power.

FVC called on all leaders in Parliament to make a commitment to a
national referendum on electoral reform before proceeding to another
unfair election.

Yet, the only political party leader advocating for electoral reform
so far has been the NDP's Jack Layton, who would be nothing short of
a disaster for this country if he ever did win a majority.

FVC president Wayne Smith says the current voting system exacerbates
our regional differences.

"There are liberals in the West and there are conservatives in
Ontario and Quebec."

According to Larry Gordon, executive director of Fair Vote Canada,
since the First World War, only four of our governments have been
legitimate majority governments -- or governments that have won more
than 50% of the popular vote: 1940, 1949, 1958 and 1984.

Nevertheless, because of our winner-take-all, first-past-the-post
electoral system, over that same period we have endured 15 phoney
majority federal governments -- that is governments that won the
majority of the seats in the House of Commons even though they didn't
win a majority of the popular vote.

In 1997, garnering just 38.5% of the popular vote, Prime Minister
Jean Chretien won 51.5% of the seats in the House, making it "the
phoniest majority government in Canadian history," says Gordon.

In 2000, pulling in 40.9% of the popular vote, Chretien's Liberals
took 57.5% of the seats in the House.

"For 10 years of majority rule, Chretien never quite reached 42
percent support," points out Gordon, who adds, back in 1984, while
seeking the leadership of the Liberal party, Chretien promised while
in Brandon, he would bring in proportional representation should he
become prime minister.

Just another one of his lies and further proof Canada doesn't have
majority rule, it has minority tyranny.

After Paul Martin formed a minority government with 38% of the vote
in the June 2004 election, he vowed to govern as best he could with
his "strong mandate." Sheesh.

Only one-in-four Canadians have voted Liberal for the past 12 years
and the rest of us get stuck with them, because we're using an
electoral system devised in the 12th century.

It is truly absurd.

In Canada, only 52% of voters were able to elect MPs.

In New Zealand, which has brought in a form of proportional
representation, 95% of voters were able to elect MPs.

Some 75 countries -- including most of Europe -- have established
some form of proportional representation.

Canadians need to demand the party leaders at least agree to
establish roundtable discussions or citizens' assemblies like those
held in B.C. and P.E.I. on electoral reform.

What are we waiting for?

Something tangible?

A nation truly divided?

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