“It doesn’t feel like an election,” someone mused. But he found it hard to explain why. “It’s not necessary!” spat somebody else. There’s a grumpiness around this campaign. If a surly mood continues to rule, the result may be no change at all. You made us vote? Okay, here’s more of the same. People do that when they get pissed off.

But since we’ve got this stupid election, is there anything useful to be done with it? Yes. We could have an election about doing something about stupid elections.

This election should be about changing the electoral system. People all over Canada say they want that. If we had a mildly rational system, like most of the world, we wouldn’t have been stuck with this Parliament. The actual preferences of voters would have been reflected and led to a stabler, more representative and more democratic House of Commons. Surely you’ve heard the arguments by now. First past the post, wasted votes, a minority of votes leading to huge majorities in seats . . .

But no one running will put it on the agenda in a strong way. They mutter something supportive, then move on to health care, guns, same-sex. I wrote recently that NDP Leader Jack Layton promised, before the last election, to make electoral reform a precondition for supporting the Liberals, and has ignored it since. I got a blizzard of huff from NDP HQ in rebuttal, suggesting they either have something to hide or are simply embarrassed. Party staffer Jamey Heath said Jack did raise it with Paul and Paul said no. Well, wouldn’t that be worth making public, as a way to let people know their differences?

In Vancouver last week, I had a drink with Gordon Gibson, who designed B.C.’s recent electoral reform commission. Its proposed reform got 57.5 per cent of the 60 per cent of votes that it needed to win a referendum last year. They’ll try again soon.

The plan, single transferrable vote (STV), was dissed by experts and editorials as impenetrable. But Gordon easily explained it. He said voters list their preferences in order, for the candidates on their ballot; then, as the lowest drop off, their votes are transferred up in that order. So you don’t “waste” your vote; it continues to count until a clear winner emerges. He said the real reason it got badmouthed is that party bosses prefer a reform where they name a list of candidates who are then selected according to percentage received by party, giving power to the bosses, not the ridings.

But he saved most of his praise for the process. Commission members were chosen by lot, worked their butts off, came up with STV, and had their proposal put directly to voters, with no government intervention or tweaking. He called it the greatest advance in direct democracy in 100 years. Have you heard about it? It rarely gets mentioned. There isn’t room for it in the normal accounts of politics that go on here. It’s miles outside the frame.

Would electoral reform reverse the decline in voter turnout, a source of much wailing? Maybe, though I don’t buy the claims of decline. I know people on the ground who say citizens vote as much as ever; but the records stink since door-to-door enumeration was eliminated in 1997 to save money. Now voters move, die etc., but stay on the lists.

I asked the redoubtable Nelson Wiseman, prof and election-time media star, about it. He agreed. He said he’s moved every year of his life (which sounded way more interesting than the turnout question). In Ontario’s last election, he was listed twice in the same riding and one of him didn’t vote. Plus, those enumerators used to remind people of the election, engage them in the process, and make them feel obligated. That’s gone, too. Elections Canada gets voters’ names off tax returns, which often list your accountant’s address. Go sort that out.

Besides, I don’t want to overstress voting. It’s a minimal form of democratic participation. People such as the two Canadians held hostage in Iraq are engaging politically, too, in a far more committed way. There’s a political impulse in humans that wants to help shape our joint destiny. But as long as voting is in the mix, we can at least try to reduce its most farcical elements.

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Rick Salutin

Rick Salutin is a Canadian novelist, playwright and critic. He is a strong advocate of left wing causes and writes a regular column in the Toronto Star.