Posted at 1:00 p.m.
The Press published an editorial a few days ago that explains very well the problems of the current system.1 Cheer ! It is indeed not appropriate that a government can obtain 80% of the seats (and therefore 100% of the power) with only 40% of the votes. We need governments and parliaments that are more representative of the popular will to have confidence in our democracy and to ensure that the population participates in it.
Where we differ is on the solution put forward by Vincent Brousseau-Pouliot.
As the editorialist mentions, in 2018, four opposition parties in Quebec, including the CAQ, agreed and committed to adding a proportional aspect to our electoral system, to make it mixed. In this model, a majority of MPs, say 80 out of 125, would always be elected from local constituencies. There would be 45 elected on regional lists, so that in the end, across Quebec, the percentage of representatives of a party is as close as possible to the percentage of votes obtained by this same party. It would have been more representative, but the CAQ changed its mind once in power. Contrary to his many promises never to do this!
Next, the editorial criticizes pure proportional voting, which could easily lead people to believe that this is the system that was proposed here. However, this is not the case and it must be said frankly. The proposed mixed system was to make up for the shortcomings of a pure system by preventing the proliferation of small parties by imposing an eligibility threshold (around 5%) and introducing a mechanism for regulating motions of no confidence to avoid the excessive repetition of unanticipated elections.
Another important advantage of a mixed system is to encourage much better transpartisan work on important files.
We have all appreciated how the issue of medical assistance in dying has been able to evolve and continues to do so in Quebec. Such collaboration would be necessary within coalitions or minority governances, favored by a system with a proportional component and would encourage more stable and considered solutions for society.
The editorialist concludes by supporting a preferential ballot, claiming without demonstration that the elected officials would be more representative of the majority of voters. Nothing is less certain. The latest results in Australia have made a brilliant demonstration: the winning party, Labor, won 33% of the vote, but 51% of the seats, therefore an undivided parliamentary majority. The members of the Liberal/National Coalition found themselves in the official opposition, who obtained 36% of the votes cast, but only 38% of the seats. It is a reversal of the citizen’s will as in Quebec in 1998 and in Canada in 2021.
As for the other parties, they picked up 32% of the vote, but only 11% of the deputies. Incidentally, the Greens only got 3% of the seats despite winning 12% of popular support.
With a preferential ballot, it would in fact be even more difficult than with the current system to have representation in the National Assembly that truly reflects the perspectives and the diversity of opinions of the population. Where each person would see that their vote really matters.
It should be noted that the preferential ballot had been ruled out for Quebec, because this system does not respect the main principles on which the parties agreed in 2016.
It is essential to review our voting system to ensure that it does not leave voters hungry. And it is a mixed proportional system with regional compensation as in Germany and Scotland, which was proposed by four of the five parties in the National Assembly, which is the solution. For the record, remember that it was René Lévesque’s proposal in 1968 when he created the Parti Québécois and that it was the solution adopted by the government of Jean Charest in 2004 (before he too reneged on his commitment) and by the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec in December 2007.
If the trend continues, the next general election in Quebec on October 3 will once again be a great festival of electoral distortions. To think that in October 2018, as in 2003, this was to be the last time we would vote with the old British electoral system that we have used since 1792! For how long will political parties in the opposition fool the population to take power by promising virtue? And for how long will citizens accept that the quality of our representative democracy is not a major, priority and constant political issue?
* Co-signatories, members of the Board of the Mouvement Démocratie Nouvelle: Sylvie Cantin, Françoise David, Luc Bordeleau and Henry Milner