It was like a Jerry Seinfeld episode, an election about nothing.
Then it started to revolve around the pandemic, with criticism of Trudeau for calling an election while a fourth wave was washing over the country, and of O’Toole for supporting Jason Kenney’s mismanagement of the pandemic in Alberta.
And now, after much ado about nothing, here we are, right back where we were five weeks ago.
They say that a mark of insanity is to continue doing the same thing while expecting a different outcome. Call us crazy, but, once again, two-thirds of us just voted for parties other than the one that won.
How does this happen?
As we are all now painfully aware, it starts with the two main parties, about as similar as Coke and Pepsi, or GM and Ford. As similar as your own two feet, planted just a few inches from each other on the political spectrum. Two parties that make as big a noise as possible about their fairly insignificant differences, which is comforting as it gives us the feeling of making an important choice.
Yes, there are other parties, but they all generally fall within either the progressive or the conservative half of our binary electoral universe. The problem has to do with vote splitting, and this is where things get more convoluted than a Jason Kenney apology.
You may consider yourself a conservative, for example, but if you cast your ballot for the PPC, you are not only voting for a party that is very unlikely to win. You are also depriving the Conservatives – probably the second-most popular party among PPC voters – of a vote that could help them win. In a twist of logic that undoubtedly rankles not just a few PPC voters, they have helped the Liberals win the election.
Similarly, casting your progressive vote in support of either the NDP or the Greens, instead of the Liberals, undoubtedly helps the Conservatives, which is probably not quite what you intended to do.
So, the bottom line is that whether you vote for one of the two big parties or for one of the multiple smaller parties – the Fantas, Sprites and Swiss Cream Sodas of the political world – you are still effectively helping one of the big parties win.
You can be excused for thinking this seems a bit like a rigged system. It’s almost as though Canada has its own form of voter suppression. One that is perhaps stealthier than the version employed in some southern US states, but one that protects the status quo, regardless of who you vote for, all the same. That is, if the outcome of every single one of Canada’s 44 federal elections held to date is any indication.
Apparently, Trudeau has said that, if elected, he would once again support electoral reform, as long as there is consensus around the version he prefers. In other words, if everyone agrees with him. And the version he prefers? Definitely not anything that involves proportional representation. His preference is the ranked ballot system, which is essentially a variation on the first-past-the-post system that is currently rendering our democracy so undemocratic.
Anyone wishing to inject a bit more proportional representation into our electoral system might wonder how we get there from here. When the only parties ever to hold power have interests in keeping things the way they are, it becomes clear we will have to find another way.
Either that or stop hoping for a different outcome.
Charles Dickson
