Making votes count.

After every election in Canada the editorial and letters pages of our newspapers are full of comment calling for a change in our electoral system; 1997 was no exception. Our "first-past-the-post" system tends to produce stable, majority governments, but it also leaves a lot of voters with the feeling that their ballots don't count.

For example, in 1993 and 1997, Western Canadians voted heavily in favour of the Reform Party. But, the Liberals won both elections with only a small number of their MPs coming from the West. This leaves Albertans, British Columbians, and others with the feeling that their more conservative view on issues is not heard in Cabinet, and their regional concerns are not dealt with either.

One suggestion for fixing this problem is to adopt a two-stage voting system similar to France's, in the first stage, everybody who wants to nun for election has their name on the ballot paper. Only the candidates who finish first and second go on to the second round of the election a couple of weeks later. Voters must then choose between just two parties. How would this have played out in 1997? In the second round, Liberals who finished second might have picked up enough NDP or Conservative votes to beat Reform candidates in the West. Or, second-place Reform candidates in Ontario might have gathered enough Conservative votes to come in ahead of the Liberals.

Perhaps, the Australian preferential ballot system might work in Canada. Voters rank their choices to ensure the winner in a constituency receives more than 50% of the vote. So, the Liberal Party and the National Party, both right-of-centre, can nun candidates in the same riding without splitting the right-wing vote between them and thereby ensuring a left-of-centre candidate wins. This tends to give a more balanced Parliament.

Back in the 1970s, the Pepin-Robarts Commission suggested a complicated balancing formula for Canada. The size of the House of Commons would be increased. The extra seats would be handed out provincially based on the proportion of the national vote each party received. Supporters of this approach are suggesting these provincial representatives could add an extra 20% of seats to the House.

Japan recently changed its system to a combination of first-past-the-past and proportional representation. Sixty percent of members are elected, riding by riding, according to who gets most votes; 40% are elected, province by province, by proportional representation. This system retains the virtues of heal representation but also ensures that regional and minority voices are heard.

Then, there's the proportional representation system. Each party publishes a list of its candidates. When the national vote is counted up parties are allocated seats according to the percentage of the vote they win. If the Conservative Party won 20% of the national vote, then the top 20% of names on its list would become MPs.

Proportional representation is used in much of Western Europe. Under the system, coalitions are common so regional and other interests can be argued out within the governing group.

But, getting electoral reform off the back burner is difficult. The party in power has to act against its own best interests to reform the electoral system. After all, the old system is what put the party in power into power. For that party the system works. And, everybody knows you don't try to fix some thing that isn't broken.

Here's how the 1997 election would have fumed out under a variety of other voting systems:

                        % of popular   seats under     proportional
                        vote 1997    current system   representation

Liberal                   38.4           155              116

Reform                    19.3            60               59

Bloc Quebecois            10.7            44               33

NDP                       11.0            21               33

Conservative              18.9            20               57

Green                      0.4             0                1

Natural Law                0.3             0                1

Christian Hertiage         0.2             0                1

Independent (Nunziata)     0.1             1                0

                         Japanese        add
                         combination     20%

Liberal                     139         178

Reform                       60          72

Bloc Quebecois               38          51

NDP                          28          28

Conservative                 35          31

Green                         0           0

Natural Law                   0           0

Christian Hertiage            0           0

Independent (Nunziata)        1           1