The Ontario Superior Court will soon assess the constitutionality of our current electoral system, which has contributed to a significant imbalance among the branches of government
The Ontario Superior Court will soon assess the constitutionality of our current electoral system, which has contributed to a significant imbalance among the branches of government
I am a huge advocate of changing electoral systems, but I don’t think this case is going to get far.
The other issue often comes to how to get to some alternate system from here. Technically, the House of Commons or any provincial legislature can just pass a bill that changes the system. Granted, governments seem hesitant to do so without public consultation or a referendum first. That has been the point of failure every single time whenever a province attempts to do so.
Thus, if we are reliant on a referendum, it would take a long campaign to inform and normalize systems that are not ‘First Past the Post’ (Single Member Plurality). When people are uninformed, they get doubtful, and wish to conserve what they currently have. I suspect it would be a decade or more of informing the public and popularizing systems.
I think our best shot is to try to get fairer voting systems implemented at the provincial (or even municipal) level and use that as a way to build up knowledge and acceptance.
And you’re absolutely right that educating the public is a big part of that.