The two contests for the federal leadership, the NDP -- already started -- and the Liberal -- on hold -- give an opportunity to think political realignment in Canada.
These leadership races could be an opportunity for serious debate about proportional representation, to give every person an equal vote, and climate change, the most urgent issue humankind faces, and one where the majority in Parliament is at odds with the majority of Canadians.
Only 40 percent of Canadians supported our government in the May 2 election, and yet we wound up with a Conservative majority. The fact that Stephen Harper now controls Parliament after gaining only 1.8 percent more of the popular vote than in 2008 is a testament to the arbitrary and antiquated nature of Canada’s Parliamentary system.
We need an electoral process in which everybody’s vote counts. We need a government that represents us.
As part of the deal that brought about the present British governing coalition, the Conservatives agreed to the demands of the Liberal Democrats -- Knifecrime Island's perennial third or fourth party, depending on which iteration of their composition you are scoring them by -- to hold a referendum on electoral reform. Under the current system, known as "first past the post," the candidate who receives the most votes in his or her constituency wins the seat.
The flurry of polls last week [See here and here] suggesting an unprecedented surge in support for the NDP has stunned political commentators and given progressives something to cheer about for the first time in ages. Paradoxically, it comes at a time in the election when it seemed that no matter how many sleazy scandals hit the Conservatives they stayed right on the edge of majority territory.
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