In the Canadian federal election of 2008, the candidate of Gatineau won with 29% of the votes. Not “the support of 29% of all eligible voters”, but with “29% support of those who voted”.

Recently, I was conveying this fact to a co-worker, and she asked how could this be possible. This is a hint to electoral reform supporters: your audience may not know the rules of plurality voting.

What is plurality?

Plurality: (also known as “simple majority”) the winner is the candidate which has more support than all other candidates. Which doesn’t imply…..

Majority: The winning candidate must have 50% support +1 vote.

In plurality, if there are more than 2 candidates, the winning candidate doesn’t necessarily need majority. They may obtain it, but they won’t necessarily need it to win.

Most US and Canadian elections pick their winner using plurality as the criteria. In Quebec, where there are now 5 major parties contesting federal elections (Conservatives, Liberal, Bloc, NDP and Greens) a winning candidate could have as little as 20%. In Gatineau in 2008, the winning candidate obtained 29% of the votes.

The good news

The good news is that we can fix this sort of thing by changing the electoral system. We have to work a little, but we can have lots of fun at the same time. Join Fair Vote Canada newsletter or better yet, become a member or a monthly donor (it can be as low as 5$/month).

Remember the computer game Myst? There’s been some real work done to make a movie out of the famous 1993 computer game and the books written after it. Follow the story at http://mystmovie.com/

And for those who want to go down nostalgia lane….

Amir Khadir, leader of Quebec Solidaire, held a press conference last Thursday announcing that the entire Quebec legislature passed a motion that, according to M. Khadir, instructs the Quebec government to include proportionality in its revision of the elections act.

A past volunteer wrote to me saying:

“I think the people have spoken and, sadly, we need to accept their determination to remain in the electoral Stone Age for the foreseeable future.”

To which I wrote back the following:

Fair Vote Canada has been in existence since 2001. No other movement has managed to get 4 referendums in such a short time span. Provincially, electoral reform has support more support than the Green
Party and NDP combined. In the riding (of Ottawa-Centre) it has 47% support, more than provincial liberals and conservatives combined. Its a great cause to be part of. The question facing Fair Vote Canada isn’t how to convince the remaining 20%, but how to mobilize the 40% that voted for it. If we do, we are an unstoppable force.

The question remains: how to mobilize the 40% who did vote yes for reform?