BC NDP now 18 points ahead of Liberals

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Thu, 2010-04-22 16:57

Fidel

Stockholm wrote:
If people wanted STV they could have voted for it in the referendum last year. Instead it went down in flames.

Yes, I think interest for reform in Liberal Party circles shot up after Glen Clark won a phony-baloney majority in 1996. What an outrage it must have been for Liberal Party supporters that the NDP took 39 seats with under 40% of the vote while Liberals won the popular vote count. Of course, after winning a phony-majority of their own in 2005 and prospects for another in 2009, it looks like interest in electoral reform among Liberal Party supporters dropped off somewhat. Electoral reform has to be supported by a majority of voters and political leaders in order for it to have sustained popularity in time for a referendum. Timing and political will is everything.

Thu, 2010-04-22 17:17

#103

kropotkin1951

Fidel wrote:

Electoral reform has to be supported by a majority of voters and political leaders in order for it to have sustained popularity in time for a referendum. Timing and political will is everything.

Actually a majority of the voters did support it but not a big enough majority. When almost 60% of the electorate voted for change but not the super majority required ALL of the political parties got scared and instead of abiding by the clear will of the majority they sent it back for a revote. Fortunately for our FPTP system this gave the political elite of both the right and left 4 years to kill any change of success in a revote. In BC the NDP keeps thinking they can win in the winner takes all stakes so they only pay lip service to PR.

Thu, 2010-04-22 17:50

#104

Fidel

The 60% supermajority was imposed by a Liberal government with a majority of seats at the time. And all parties had to agree not to camapaign for electoral reform. The same conditions were true in Liberal Ontario except that the campaign for MMP here was started far too late and probably by design. Another exception was that there was better funding for the BC referendum leading up to the ~57% vote for STV. But again, why vote for STV or even MMP when your party happens to be on the receiving end of the phony-majority machine? There has to be an overall political will for fixing the democracy-gap canyon in this country. And I think abolishing that other abomination of democracy, the senate, will go over like screen doors in a submarine with supporters of the two old line parties unless there exists a political will to establish a modern and competitive democracy of our Northern Puerto Rico. Neither of the two old line parties are competitive, nor are they interested in creating globally competitive economies supported by a populist democratic consensus. The struggle for a modern democracy continues in Canada.

Thu, 2010-04-22 18:01

#105

Maysie

CLosing for length.

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