The people have spoken. Or have they? Well, they have in the best way our first-past-the-post voting system will allow. In our view, it's a system that's incapable of rendering a fair result, and it should be changed.
How does 39.62 per cent of the vote result in a majority government? After Canada's 40th general election last Monday (May 2), members of Fair Vote Canada -a group whose mission is to lobby for the adoption of a voting system that more accurately reflects what happens at the ballot box - released an analysis of the results. It showed that while the Conservatives won 39.62 per cent of the popular vote, they won 54.22 per cent (167) of the 308 available seats.
By contrast, if the number of seats won were based solely on the proportion of the votes received, the Conservatives would have won 122 seats, the New Democrats 95, the Liberals 59, the Bloc Quebecois 19 and the Greens 13.
"The Conservative party increased their vote percentage by less than two points, but this allowed them to win 24 more seats than in 2008, when they were already over-represented," Bronwen Bruch, president of Fair Vote Canada, said in a statement. "Stephen Harper calls this a 'decisive endorsement,' but we call it a rip-off."
We're not advocating a full vote by proportional representation, though. That would result in vast areas being unrepresented geographically. Instead, this writer would like to see a mixed system -with half the seats allocated by region and half by proportion of the popular vote nationwide.
In the meantime, we've got a few concerns about this new government.
We're not too worried about the economy in the short term. The Harperites have done a fair job of managing Canada's economic recovery and, in spite of the fact that employment hasn't yet fully rebounded to pre-recession levels, the economy should do OK over the next four years.
We worry, though, that leaders will ignore Canadians' concerns about the environment and leave the country even further behind the "green" technology curve than it already is after five years of neglect and support for industry (especially the Alberta tar sands) over all else.
We worry that, in spite of assurances from some MPs, that the Northern Gateway pipeline project will win approval, resulting in an increase in the number of tankers in B.C. waters and in the risk of inland spills (such as the one that just occurred in northwestern Alberta).
We worry that the proceedings of the Cohen inquiry into the 2009 collapse of the Fraser River sockeye salmon stocks will be kept secret, potentially resulting in a final report that's based more on economic and political considerations than on scientific ones.
We worry that, in spite of the Tories' support for a "law and order" agenda, the long-gun registry whose continuation is supported by virtually every Canadian law-enforcement group is about to be scrapped.
We worry that the blatant disregard for any sort of "expert" advice on issues such as law enforcement and the environment will only increase and that we'll see even more respected civil servants turfed for daring to take issue with the government on decisions that should be made only after considering the most objective and recent research.
Thirty-nine-point-six-two per cent does not give one a mandate to run roughshod over anything. Here's hoping that Jack Layton, Elizabeth May and whomever is chosen to lead the moribund Liberals is up to the task of holding the government to account.
- David Burke
