10-23-2019, 01:41 PM
(10-23-2019, 10:44 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: Liberals prefer ranked ballot because it allows them to look like they're in support of change, and a change that on the surface looks like a good idea, but which still maintains the status quo and doesn't actually result in a more proportional government.
Ranked ballot is almost the definition of liberal.
It would not maintain the status quo. Many ridings are won by somebody different from the outcome that can reasonably be inferred with instant runoff, usually but not always to the benefit of the Conservatives (Liberals when there was a big split between Reform and PC). I really should run the analysis, but I suspect that Ontario wouldn’t even have a PC majority right now under instant runoff.
In a situation where C, L, and NDP share the vote almost equally with the C winning, I think it’s safe to say that most L and NDP voters would prefer that whichever got more votes should win rather than the C candidate. I could of course be wrong but we don’t know unless we start using ranked ballots. And unlike some people I would still want the change even if it turned out to be bad for my preferences. If the Liberals only win because the conservative vote is split between different parties, then the electoral system is not reflecting the will of the population.
That is why I say step 1 is to start using ranked ballots for all elections. This is not a change to the electoral system as such, which currently consists of running a separate election in each riding, only to the way the ballots are marked and counted. I mean, I literally could have written 1, 2, 3 on the ballot I filled out on Monday, but it would have counted as spoiled. Then we can have the more complicated discussion of what actual changes should be made to inject some measure of proportionality or something like it. I think we should start by getting rid of the current longstanding per-dollar subsidy on political donations and bring back the per-vote subsidy. That gave the smaller and more grassroots parties monetary support more connected to their actual popularity rather than to how many well-off donors they could attract.