Working Papers
Since the Special Committee on Electoral Reform is preparing to submit its report on electoral reform, my students at the University of Montreal in POL 2050 (Political Representation) are pleased to submit their recommendation for the electoral system that should be adopted for Canadian federal elections.
After reviewing the research on the effects of voting methods, weighing the arguments for and against the different voting methods, and after deliberations and voting (see attached report), the students voted to recommend a mixed regional compensatory voting system, with preferential vote.
The proposed voting system resembles the Scottish voting system in several ways. There are regions with an average of 15 seats in total, 10 local seats and 5 regional seats allocated to the most disadvantaged parties in the local vote. Local voting would be an alternative (or preferential) vote and regional voting with open lists (see the report for more details).
This choice is based on the desire to reconcile several objectives, some of which are partly contradictory. First, there is the goal of ensuring that there is not a great distortion between the distribution of votes and seats (while not insisting on a strong correspondence). Then there is the concern to preserve strong local representation by keeping the largest possible number of constituencies represented by a local MP. Finally, there is the desire to allow voters to express their preferences in the most precise and nuanced way possible, which translates into the possibility of expressing an order of preference in the local vote and of supporting a candidate list in the regional vote.
The attached report is in French, but I am happy to answer any questions you have in both English and French. You can contact me at andre.blais@umontreal.ca.
After reviewing the research on the effects of voting methods, weighing the arguments for and against the different voting methods, and after deliberations and voting (see attached report), the students voted to recommend a mixed regional compensatory voting system, with preferential vote.
The proposed voting system resembles the Scottish voting system in several ways. There are regions with an average of 15 seats in total, 10 local seats and 5 regional seats allocated to the most disadvantaged parties in the local vote. Local voting would be an alternative (or preferential) vote and regional voting with open lists (see the report for more details).
This choice is based on the desire to reconcile several objectives, some of which are partly contradictory. First, there is the goal of ensuring that there is not a great distortion between the distribution of votes and seats (while not insisting on a strong correspondence). Then there is the concern to preserve strong local representation by keeping the largest possible number of constituencies represented by a local MP. Finally, there is the desire to allow voters to express their preferences in the most precise and nuanced way possible, which translates into the possibility of expressing an order of preference in the local vote and of supporting a candidate list in the regional vote.
The attached report is in French, but I am happy to answer any questions you have in both English and French. You can contact me at andre.blais@umontreal.ca.
| rapport-pol-2050f.pdf |
