Roundup: A victory for the status quo

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Christmas came a few days early, courtesy of British Columbia, which rejected the referendum to change their voting system. A decisive 61.3 percent of British Columbians voted to keep First Past the Post, which one hopes would shut up the proportional representation Kool-Aid drinkers for some time – not that it will. They’ve already begun the ritual grousing over Twitter about how a) the referendum was the problem and people rejected it and not PR; and b) that voters are just too stupid to get that “PR is lit,” to coin a phrase. The provincial Green Party leader, Andrew Weaver, says that he gets the message and that they won’t be raising it “anytime soon” – but he also didn’t want a referendum in the first place and wanted it imposed, so we’ll see how long before he starts agitating for that option.

Next up for attempts at electoral reform are Quebec – where François Legault promised it sans-referendum with the support of other party leaders – and PEI, where PR narrowly “won” a poorly attended plebiscite, on the late round of a ranked ballot, hence the government plans to run another referendum during the next provincial election.
But seriously, guys. We need to stop this mythmaking about the current system, and this belief that PR is the only “good” system. Most of the gripes about the current system stem from ignorance and disengagement with the process that has allowed bad actors to co-opt the system to their own ends (and this is especially because of the bastardised leadership selection system that we have gravitated toward despite is demonstrated toxic effect on our system). PR doesn’t solve these problems – if anything, most PR systems simply exacerbate them and create whole new problems. Time to focus our efforts toward civic literacy and using grassroots engagement to fix the problems that we’ve allowed to creep into our system. And hey, I wrote a book on this as a primer for you.

https://twitter.com/moebius_strip/status/1075903388187910145

https://twitter.com/moebius_strip/status/1075906692880068608

https://twitter.com/moebius_strip/status/1075956069082386432

Meanwhile, Shachi Kurl of the Angus Reid institute breaks down the polling around the referendum, and should put to bed a few of the myths.

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1075928443865292800

Good reads:

  • As part of an upcoming interview, Justin Trudeau says that he thinks Western alienation isn’t so much growing as it’s being exploited by certain politicians.
  • Canada joined with allies in confirming a Chinese state-sponsored data breach, despite the fact that it may exacerbate the current tensions.
  • Huawei’s Canadian vice-president says that a campaign of espionage on their part would make no economic sense, and that they are taking precautions.
  • The EU is calling for the Canadians detained in China to be given legal access. As many as 200 Canadians may be in custody in China for various reasons.
  • Bill Blair is giving Toronto $6.7 million to combat guns and gang violence, and isn’t ruling out a possible handgun ban.
  • Catherine McKenna insists Canada will meet its Paris Accord targets despite the fact that Ontario has backtracked on some of its commitments.
  • McKenna also says we’ll reach our targets faster if we switch to public transit and electric cars. (So…more subsidies?)
  • The government has released their draft regulations for cannabis edibles, and the public has sixty days to provide input.
  • The RCMP have completed their vote to certify a new union.
  • The Canadian Forces say they’ll investigate whether there was a scheme to obscure documents related to VADM Mark Norman from Access to Information requests.
  • The bill to create a Parliamentary visual arts laureate is in procedural limbo after its sponsor was made a parliamentary secretary, disqualifying him from carrying on.
  • Jagmeet Singh is contradicting NDP MP Don Davies’ calls that the Huawei CFO not be extradited to the US, believing it to be politically motivated.
  • Here’s a preview of the upcoming Kenney-Notley fight in Alberta.
  • The UCP is seeking intervenor status in Ontario’s court reference on the carbon tax.
  • Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks at the unfinished business before Parliament rose for the holiday break.
  • Alex Castonguay has a heart-to-heart with Alberta to point to their similarities with Quebec and bust the myths being spouted to rouse anger at them.

Odds and ends:

A commemorative loonie will be released next year to mark the 50th anniversary of the (partial) decriminalisation of homosexuality.

Here’s a look at a study conducted on parliamentary questions of prime ministers in 32 democracies, including Canada.

Programming Note:This is my last post for 2018, and will resume in January (barring any unforeseen events that demand immediate commentary). Have a great holiday season, thanks for reading, and rest up, because 2019 is going to be an endurance race for all of us.

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5 thoughts on “Roundup: A victory for the status quo”

    • There are certainly arguments to be had about voting days and increasing access in other ways, but legislating turnouts makes me a bit queasy.

  2. Why do you think there’s so much disengagement from the system?

    Could it be that many voters are put off by the fact that the proportion of MPs elected by a party is often completely skewed from their percentage of the popular vote?

    Or the fact that majority governments can be formed under FPTP by focusing on specific regions, while PR might force governments to take into account the broad concerns of different regions where they’d otherwise lose a share of the popular vote?

    Or the fact that governments have been formed where one party captures every single seat in the legislature despite getting a far smaller share of the popular vote?

    Or the fact that a winner can be decided even before the damn polls close in Western Canada, based on the results further East?

    Or the fact that seat counts make regional politics seem more polarized than they really are by masking the support Liberals get in Western Canada, or Conservatives in Eastern Canada, as Alan Cairns has pointed out?

    Or the fact that most people vote based on party platforms and leaders, not who the local candidate is, and don’t see themselves as participating in one of 338 local ones?

    How do we address these problems?

    • We could start by properly framing some of these issues, and putting more focus on things like accountability (which PR doesn’t address), fixing our bastardized leadership processes, and putting proper focus on local races.

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