Democracy - You know when you haven't got it

The Canadian federal election to elect the members of the Canadian House of Commons in Ottawa is next week, on October 14th.

Millions of Canadians face the prospect of once again casting votes that elect no one.

The voters who elect no one in any electorate anywhere are called "Orphan Voters". They now have their own web site at orphanvoters.ca .  If you want to see how many votes were wasted in London-Fanshawe, try entering "N6E 2V7" in the post code field. It's a shocker.

Canada doesn't have MMP. They still use First Past the Post. While some in New Zealand have clearly forgotten (or failed to appreciate)  how truly awful First Past the Post really is, millions of Canadians will very soon re-discover how pointless it is to bother casting those wasted votes that elect no one.

Canada has essentially been balkanised into virtually monolithic regions thanks to First Past the Post. Actual votes show that almost all parties enjoy broad support across the whole country, but thanks to First Past the Post, one party with minority voter support is able to dominate in a given region.  This has lead to considerable partisan politicking between regions and no small amount of dischord. No one party has a majority in the Federal parliament and regionally-based minority governments have been the outcome in the past two election and are likely in this one, too. 

Essentially, First Past the Post has produced a divisive and destructive political environment where parties with minority support in their own regions are over-represented in the national parliament.  

For example, the Bloc Quebecois, with 10.5% of the vote in 2006, won 51 seats out of 318 - almost 20% of all seats. But the NDP, with 17.5% of the vote only won 29, less than 10% of all seats.  Almost twice as many votes won the NDP a bit more than half as many seats. 

In the three prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, if you don't vote for the Conservative party, you are unlikely to elect anyone.

In Quebec, if you don't vote for the Bloc Quebecois, you are unlikely to elect anyone.

In Ontario, the Liberals tend to hold sway, with a few Conservative pockets in rural areas, and a vote for anyone else, much of the time, is pointless.

In each case, the 'winner' is simply the largest minority - not the majorityi

In an effort to cast a vote that actually counts, there is a Facebook group devoted to matching voters who have worthless votes in their own electorate with voters for other parties in electorates where their votes are also worthless. They co-operate to vote strategically for a common goal - in this case, keeping the unpopular Conservative party from gaining a majority of the seats with barely 35% of all the votes.

There is a desperate air among these voters seeking - somehow - to cast a vote that actually matters.

Here in New Zealand, we would be fools to get rid of MMP and return to this situation......