A petition calling for a reform of the voting system in Quebec, posted on the national assembly's website, has received more than 10,000 signatures since Oct. 3. The petition, launched by the Mouvement démocratie nouvelle(opens in a new tab) and sponsored by PQ MNA Pascal Bérubé, had collected more than 12,000 signatures by Sunday morning. It is the petition with the most signatures among those currently open on the National Assembly website -- its closest competitor has received around 2,000. The document calls for the first-past-the-post voting system currently in force to be replaced by a mixed-member proportional voting system, which "would allow for a fairer representation of the diversity of opinions, values and convictions expressed by the Quebec population," according to the petition's instigators.

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Just read your comment regarding the german FDP party (and its non-support for low-cost public transit). Ideologically, they are in the culturally progressive / economically right-wing quadrant, for which the support is notoriously small. Still, the 5-10 % of votes they get is often enough to be part of coalition governments in Germany. I wondered if your expertise could help with the following question: How could these people be rendered less awful as part of coalition building?

My first instinct is to say, "just give them ministries that focus on the culturally progressive side" so they can do some good and the least amount of damage, but the problem is that IIRC the FDP tends to be very insistent on getting economic portfolios in coalition governments.

So I don't know.

November 7, 1945: The start of the week-long process, at the 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan, of counting ballots for those to be elected to the City Council under Proportional Representation; the process was expected to cost taxpayers half a million dollars.

Photo: NY Journal American via Harry Ransom Center, Univ. of Texas

From the July 3, 2023 proposal:

Simple plurality elections may have been the default choice 250 years ago, when it was the only mode of voting yet invented. But the world has changed considerably since then. Most advanced democracies use proportional representation to elect their legislatures, and allow multiple parties to form, and better represent the nation as a result. Such a change may feel like a moonshot, but it doesn’t require a constitutional amendment. Congress could enact proportional multimember districts with ordinary legislation. American democracy is not static—we’ve made major changes in the past, and moments of crisis are also moments of imagination and transformation.

Reminder: if you want a PR voting system, don’t vote for Labour while it’s run by Keir Starmer … “There are a lot of people in the Labour party who are pro-PR but it’s not a priority and we go into the next election under the same system that we’ve got, first past the post, and I’m not doing any deals going into the election or coming out of the election.”

Proportional Representation in Portland, Oregon

Explanation of the charter reform measure on the ballot this election! I generally consider myself well-informed, but it turns out that proportional representation is subtly different from (and better than!) what I had understood.

Six minute video, captions available, and very clearly explained. The video is also non-partisan: it explains what proportional representation is and does, but does not take a position on whether that’s desirable or not.

Canada needs electoral reform at every level. One of the worst things about First Past the Post (FPTP) is being pressured to vote strategically.

What Canada really needs is senate reform!

All of the major political parties have scuffed policies when it comes to the senate!

For example, the NDP and Bloc want to abolish it, the Liberals want to appoint liberals disguised as independents to the senate, and the Conservatives want it to be business as usual while they appoint "conservatives" to be senators.

Canada's upper house is based off of the UK's House of Lords but why must we take the bad aspects of it?

Canadian's deserve a senate that is:

Of the people

By the people

For the people

Canada needs an elected senate!

Congress is broken, many voters say. I wrote about growing calls to fix the U.S. House of Representatives with multi-member districts and proportional representation, an alternative to the current winner-take-all election system. Advocates say it could better reflect the country’s diversity.

https://lnkd.in/eMv2rX8j https://lnkd.in/erHmeXcn Explain how and why the Conservative majority UK Parliament at Westminster, London and beyond is no longer fit for purpose. AI Open Source GPT Chat Llewelyn Pritchard MA 27 April 2023 

"Proportional representation will ensure that a minority will never rule. It also will ensure that no considerable minority will ever be excluded from having a voice Is that not democracy?

"What have the self- appointed protagonists of democracy and majority rule in this House to say about that?

"Are they opposed to a minority having a voice?

"Are they opposed to majority rule?"

—William Irvine, MP (1923) [Pictured] https://www.lipad.ca/full/permalink/643351/

Keir Starmer will no longer scrap tuition fees. Just what does his Labour Party stand for?

“No leader of a major political party has so comprehensively junked their leadership platform in British democratic history. When Tony Blair ran for leader in 1994, he did not pose as a Bennite before abruptly shifting rightwards. Blair’s broad vision for both party and country was clear from the start. To Gordon Brown’s credit, he had a much clearer set of political values than Starmer, but was unable to translate that into a clear offer when he became prime minister. ‘You’d imagine that after 10 years of waiting, and 10 years complaining about Tony, we would have some idea of what we are going to do, but we don’t seem to have any policies,’ one of his lieutenants complained at the time. The result? His government was buffeted by events, ending up in a perpetual tailspin.

“This risks being the fate of a Starmer government. It would come to power in far more adverse circumstances than Brown suffered: the legacy of 14 years of slash-and-burn cuts, neglected services and infrastructure, a collapsing NHS and falling living standards. Without a clear sense of purpose, let alone answers to basic questions – where will the money come from to pay for rebuilding public services across the board? – crisis and disappointment may swiftly follow.

“Having a clear vision isn’t some nerdy abstraction for wonks: it’s what keeps a government anchored, rather than drifting at the mercy of circumstance. And so Starmer’s deceit may have bought him the leadership of his party, but may well sink him in government.”

From the June 26, 2023 opinion column by Cerin Lindgrensavage:

Most democracies today use some form of proportional representation, where multiple legislators are elected at the same time from a district according to their share of the vote. For instance, if Republicans win roughly 50 percent of the vote in a six-seat district, they would likely secure three of the seats. Instead of our current system where a majority (or even a plurality) in a congressional district wins the only seat available, these systems elect members in multi-member districts representing both majority and minority interests, whether they be Republicans in blue states or racial minorities in majority white states.

The kicker? Most multi-member districts make gerrymandering practically impossible.

A fascinating comment on Proportional Representation

According to a presentation on Electoral Reform that was published a day or so ago “Which European countries use proportional representation?” and it goes on to say that “Of the 43 Countries in Europe, 40 use some form of proportional representation” Now to be fair the piece on the document which can be found here is that it was initially published in December 2018. The person who did the…

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I mean, it was four short years ago that Gavin Newsom's ego vetoed a ranked choice voting bill so it's time go big.

At a certain point, fuck the civility politics. Also, the Left Unity Slate has to be more aggressive against the Democratic Party machine in Sacramento.