Our election is once again going to have some bizarre and crazy results because voters in Canada do not have an equal voice at the ballot box. Some voters get voices that are three to four times as loud as others.
Let us start with the simple fact that the the third place finisher in every riding on Vancouver Island in 2006 got more votes than the most popular MP from PEI. In what world can it make sense for someone to be a more popular choice than anyone in a PEI and come third???? We have a system where every voter in PEI gets almost four votes for everyone we get on Vancouver Island.
The people that lost on Vancouver Island often got more votes than the people elected as MPs in the rest of the country. We have third place finishers on Vancouver Island that would have won with that number of votes in every province of the country. The voters on Vancouver Island simply are denied a reasonable voice in Ottawa.
How does it make sense that Terence Young could get 25148 votes in Oakville and lose? He got more votes than most of the MPs elected but he is not elected.
There are Greens in the last 2 elections that did better at the polls than people elected as MPs. How is it fair the party has no elected MPs even though their candidates are more popular than people that got elected? David Chernushenko in Ottawa Centre and Shane Jolley in Bruce - Grey - Owen Sound got more votes than three MPs that were elected. In 2004 Andrew Lewis in Saanich Gulf Islands got more votes than 12 MPs that were elected.
I defy any to explain how it is fair for people to go into the election and achieve a better result than other people running and lose - to come fourth in some cases.
Why can we not have some sort of equity in this country?
How can anyone serve as an MP in Ottawa knowing they have less of a mandate than people who did not get elected, that their mandate to serve is smaller than people who came fourth in some places?
What moral right is there for people to be given a smaller voice in Ottawa than others?
If we had STV federally, everyone elected would be elected with a mandate of almost indentical size.
If we are to keep the current system, we need to agree to how many people there should be in a riding and stick to that number across the nation. No more devaluing people because they choose to live in Victoria instead of Charlottetown.
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