• Pxtl@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    “Councillors at large” are the bane of any system they’re in: they float in the background beholden to none of the voters,

    This is FUD. An open-list MMP system has nobody whose name was not on a ballot - the idea is that the backfill-seats go to the most popular people (by ballots) within the backfilling party. So if there’s some loathed backbencher within a party, they can’t squeeze in by the list because voters who like that party can still vote for somebody else.

    And STV is even more direct in that every person on the ballot is ranked individually by voters, it’s just STV includes multiple members of the same party on the same ballot because there’s more than 1 seat up for grabs in the riding.

    We have parachute MP candidates today. We have PCPO candidates who don’t even show up for debates. Jack Layton managed to get Brosseau a seat in Quebec, when was a college student who spent the election in Vegas and didn’t speak French. I doubt half of Canadian voters could even name their current MP.

    Celebrating an absurdly disproportionate system in order to preserve something that is already a sham and with attacks that aren’t even relevant to the systems on the table is ridiculous. nobody is proposing a closed-list system.

    Many countries have switched from FPTP systems to proportional systems. Many more have campaigns to do so. How many countries have the reverse? How many campaigns are out there to go back to FPTP? None, because it’s a dumb system.

    • Sir_Osis_of_Liver@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      We have absolutely no idea if the system will be STV, MMP, the bastardised STV-Urban/MMP-Rural system, open or closed party lists or something else entirely, because everyone and their dog has their preferred system. With the pols making the final decisions, it’s safe to assume that the parties will do what they must to benefit the respective parties. Also Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy, NZ, etc use closed lists, so it’s hardly unheard of.

      Fortunately, it’s not something we’ll have to deal with for a very long time. The Liberals are feeling hard done by for the backlash they got, the CPC were absolutely not on board from the beginning and were going to fight it tooth and nail, the beleaguered NDP are as close to power as they’ll likely ever be, but nowhere close enough to force the issue. The Bloc will continue to be agents of chaos and do what they can to be disruptive.

      Random polling of the electorate over the years has satisfaction with the current system bouncing between 50 and 70%, mostly dependent on the state of the economy. When asked whether is should be changed from FPTP, you can get up to 60% support, but as soon as you put forward specific systems, support fragments, and FPTP becomes the default. That’s been born out by the numerous aborted attempts for change at the provincial level.

      As far as what other countries are doing, uh, so what? Are they better run? Most of Eastern Europe is dominated by fascist or fascist adjacent governments. Much of Western Europe is leaning in that direction. Much of Germany is still beholden to the friggen coal industry of all things. And Italy, basically in constant political turmoil, has outdone themselves by putting the actual fascists back in power.