But would the pro-PR crowd go for it? Though it's preferable to FPTP, STV is still based on voting for the candidate, not the party at all. So it still leans a little more towards FPTP than it does towards PR. the list system of course is just pure PR, and the MMP system leans more towards PR than FPTP. So my concern would be that while thos who prefer to vote for candidates than parties would oppose the list system and might feel quite uncomfortable with MMP, those who support more power for parties are likely to feel that STV might not go ar enough, or am I wrong? 58% of BC voters is an impressive number though, I'll give you that. Do you think this could work at the federal level too?

Either way, I suppose that any supporter of a party system would still prefer STV to FPTP at least. Looking at it that way, even those who might feel it doesn't go far enough are likely to support it as a step forward at least. That's another way of looking at it I suppose.

Another thing I've noticed is that some voters sometimes do not even know the name of teh candidate they're voting for, just voting blindly for the party. Getting rid of listing the name of a party underneath a candidate's name might make voters more responsible by forcing them to at least know the name of the candidate they're voting for.

After all, it does happen that an MP disagrees with his party on some fundamenal issue and ends up leaving the party. For people who vote blindly for the party under a TPTP or STV system might find his vote to be a wasted one. But if he's more familiar with the actual candidate he's voting for, it might help to put independent candidates on a more equal footing and to prevent them from voting for a candidate who's only luke warm to his ideas. To take an example, let's suppose that ideologically the voter sits between the Liberals and the NDP, then clearly it would be better for him to vote for a representative of the NDP's right or the Liberals' left. To do that though, he needs to know the candidate better, so by getting rid of party names from teh ballot might help to accomplish this.

Machjo,

Lot of tradeoffs have to be considered.  I think to be fair to everyone you have to include as much information as possible.  That information needs to be categorized to meet the needs of all voters.  I don't agree with the concept of leaving info off the ballot to appeal to one group or the other.  We want an informed vote that clearly represents the views of all voters.  We then want the electoral system to sort those vote to reflect the views presented on the ballot.   

With BC-STV the ballot will solve many of the conflicts.  Candidates listed by Party will give all voters clear recognition of their most popular ways that they tend to vote.  If voting choice is made via a party ticket, all Candidates are listed by party, so that they can be easily identified.  Those who want to view the candidates also have them sorted for comprehensive selection.  When you see what can be done with a well laid out ballot, you realize how clearly the information can be capsulated for the voters benefit.  In BC we also asked that rotation and other steps be added to keep the ballot fair to everyone. 

What appealed to the CA in BC was the fact that BC-STV offered all choices to all voters, while making every vote count.  The second and very important point that voters wanted, was that all successful MLAs were directly elected by the voter.  MMP lists proved to be one of the key issues to the rejection of MMP in Ontario.  It is very difficult to create a list system that doesn't take the value away from the original intent of the vote in the SMP part of MMP.  Your vote gets sorted via the party process often with little influence by the voter who cast the ballot.  STV considers your vote a face value, your preferences on the ballot then move your choices through the voting system.  The voter has influence on the sorting process.  Thus you get a result that is very representative of the views of the voting public when all ballots follow through the STV electoral system.

AT