Bloc Québécois voter’s mail-in ballot was returned to sender after the election
Elections Canada said the return address printed on this elector’s return envelope was incorrect — specifically, part of the postal code.
Courts could force byelection, expert says
But Ara Karaboghossian, professor of political science at Vanier College, says there’s a chance this saga isn’t over. He said the election could be contested through Elections Canada’s contested elections process. He said irregularities can be the basis for contesting a decision
“It says that if there is any type of irregularity that has an effect on the result, then the person can actually contest,” said Karaboghossian. “The elector can contest. A candidate can contest. It’s open to anybody.”
The case will hinge on what an irregularity is, but it seems to Karaboghossian that a misprint on a self-addressed, stamped envelope could fall into that category.
Good news for Bloc Québécois
This is another reason why proportional representation is a better system. One vote wouldn’t matter because one vote wouldn’t flip a riding or change the number and type of representatives who become MPs. After all, the percentage of MPs elected in the riding wouldn’t change significantly enough with one vote.
The money and resources used for this one vote, along with court time and a potential byelection, make a mockery of our democratic process.
With proportional representation, we would have the same or fewer elections than we have now.
Agree 100%, we definitely need to move to PR ASAP.
Elsewhere on the piefediverse I’ve seen the argument made that PR also generally leads to other benefits like better cooperation between candidates and less mudslinging.
I mean it does have it’s uses. The byelection for the two Georgia Senate seats back in 2020 (technically a pair of runoff elections) is what ensured the Dems senate majority back then.
The fact that proportional representation reduces polarization and makes parties cooperative instead of adversarial is the number one reason I want it.
It makes countries more democratic and balanced.
It does also make governance more challenging. See Holland and Belgium.
Belgium and the Netherlands’ specific political turmoil has nothing to do with proportional representation and only concerns the local issues their citizens believe in and the parties in contention over them. The same happens in first-past-the-post countries with higher frequency and more volatility while concentrating power in more extreme parties, like the United States.
On top of that, being compared to the Netherlands and Belgium is flattering. They’ve both had fewer elections than Canada since 1945 Higher voter turnout, Parliamentary term completion rates are 14 and 15% higher therefore less policy lurch
Countries with proportional representation show that if a party’s policies deviate significantly from mainstream opinion, other parties will unite to exclude them from power. This is an additional check and balance that Canada doesn’t have, and this additional protection has been performed in Belgium and the Netherlands before.
No system of government will make a conflict-free paradise, but we know that proportional representation will lead to a more civilized and balanced representation of their citizens’ values.