Why I am against proportional representation?

Arnab — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 03:57:49 +0000

The referendum in Ontario is coming very soon. Many of us are talking about a new system, where we will not only select MPPs from our ridings but also on the basis of the percentage MPPs from different parties would be chosen. It looks pretty nice at the beginning. For many of us it doesn’t make sense to have McGuinty gaining a majority government with only 42% vote. This new system will wipe out the concept of majority government for good. However, there are many problems that we have to face if we go for this system. Some radical extremist parties like Family Coalition Party, which is an anti-gay party might actually gain seats in our parliament. We could actually see anti-immigrant parties rising and winning seats in our parliament. Even though we might not have a majority government “officially” it is possible for the conservatives, greens and these bunch of minor extremist parties coming together and forming a political coalition. Conservatives and greens might be able to pass the privatization schemes that they have and as a return of favour passing some anti-gay legislations to keep these extremist parties happy. In addition, honestly speaking, it doesn’t make any kind of sense for the green party to gain seats with only 4%-5% of votes.

Let’s not forget that the spending on elections will rise significantly as we might end up having elections in every two years or so. I think we have a system that actually works. It has been working for years. There is no point of destroying it. This new system will delay everything and divide the parliament into pieces.

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Why I am against proportional representation?