Alt text: Infographic titled "A Simple Guide to Electoral Systems" with a light blue background. At the top, a highlighted box states: "In a healthy democracy, citizens are deserving of and entitled to representation in government. Only proportional representation can dependably get you there."
The content is organized in two main columns. The left column labeled "Winner-Take-All Systems 🚫" (in red) describes First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) used in Canada/USA where the candidate with most votes wins but many votes don't elect anyone, and Instant-Runoff Voting (IRV) which uses ranked ballots but still wastes votes.
The right column labeled "Proportional Representation ✓" (in green) describes Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP) used in Germany/New Zealand where voters cast ballots for both local candidates and parties, and Single Transferable Vote (STV) used in Ireland which uses ranked ballots in multi-member districts. Both proportional systems ensure the percentage of votes equals percentage of seats.
A blue band across the middle highlights "Systems using Ranked Ballots: IRV and STV."
The bottom contains three gray boxes stating: "Which electoral system is best? If you care about democracy, proportional representation is the way to go," "Which political parties support proportional representation? Only Green🟢/NDP🟧/RPC🟨 consistently support proportional representation," and "Share this with a pro-democracy friend!"
The content is licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0.
List of parties that support proportional representation:
- 🟢Green
- 🟧New Democratic Party (NDP)
- 🟨Revolution Party of Canada (RPC)
- ⚜️Bloc Québécois
- 🐮Animal Protection Party
- Communist Party of Canada
- The Canadian Future Party
Perhaps, but are you suggesting we should not fight for a healthy democracy?
(and yes, a healthy democracy requires that every vote counts, as it would in proportional representation electoral systems)
Haha. Yup, it's ugly, but maybe someone else can do something better with it, it's licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0.
Just curious, what part of my comment led you to reply with “are you suggesting we should not fight for a healthy democracy”?
Also, encouraging liberal voters to vote for a fringe party with less than 3% of the vote, like the Green Party, leads to the right-wing party winning.
“Vote Green Party” is a sure way to see national outcomes even further away from your ideals.
Why would we need to tell people what to think, if fighting for a healthy democracy was not already a presupposition?
I think it's more of a design preference... and overall doesn't interfere with respect to the overall messaging.
Right, why tell them what the “correct” conclusion is with the red/green marks then?
And, you asked for feedback; I gave it.
Well the point of the infographic is to highlight what the correct conclusion is, without ambiguity.
In a world where people could take time to deeply evaluate each electoral system, yes I'd agree with you. But I don't think any infographic sets out to do that, and this one does not.
Well voting for a political party that doesn't support proportional representation is guaranteed to doom the movement.
If other parties want to cater to the fair vote movement, how about they come up with more palatable policies to us, rather than have everyone race to the bottom?
And the Green party isn't the only party that supports proportional representation. The NDP do as well.
This isn’t well thought out. Look at what’s happened in the US as a result of this non-practical approach.
Got any better ideas? The theory of change is a hotly discussed topic in this movement.
If I believe that a candidate is ~~anti democratic~~ impeding democracy (e.g liberal/conservative), then I vote for them to avoid "splitting the vote", then I just voted for an someone who impedes democracy.
And yes, I do see those that don't support proportional representation as ~~anti democratic~~ impeding democracy.
The frame of reference is that supporters of proportional representation are splitting the vote, when it should be seen as everyone else being anti democratic.
That's just my opinion.
Speaking from the US so my context may be different, but:
One of the things that bugs me is people don't seem to want to do anything except in the days leading up to the election. Then they want to vote for some moonshot candidate.
To me the strategy should be a lot of hard work throughout the year, and then harm reduction as needed (eg: vote against trump). The hard work may be phone calls, canvassing, protesting, coalition building, I don't know.
When people do nothing political except vote for a fringe party, it seems ineffective. Maybe even counter productive.
I mean, I'm lazy and being strangled by capitalism too, so I kind of get it.
Again, voting for a "fringe" party that might advance proportional representation, is always better than any party that won't advance proportional representation.
Besides, Canada is not like the US. We do elect Green and NDP candidates, and they've formed government on occasion (e.g., the BC government as of now). It's hard to say they are fringe, when it's just not the reality.
And even if these are "fringe" parties, it's not a "fringe" idea to ensure that every vote counts, as it would under proportional representation.
That’s incorrect if the party you voted for has no chance of actually bringing about proportional representation, and you end up with a party wildly opposite to your ideals in office.
It’s a very entitled viewpoint; thinking “They need to please me” rather than “what’s realistically best for everyone overall?”.
A better idea may be to keep the leftmost VIABLE party in office and work with those representatives from the bottom up to implement incremental change.
Parties who don’t manage to get in office can make no change at all.
Yeah, that's how representative democracy is supposed to work. Candidates are supposed to cater to their constituent's needs. You have it the other way around.
It's wildly entitled to think that a candidate, who hasn't done any work to earn my vote, should earn my vote. That's extremely delusional thinking.
What's best for everyone overall is a strong democracy. I'm not going to vote for a candidate that won't advance that priority, and neither should anybody else.
And parties that don't promise any meaningful change also don't make any change at all.
I've been down this conversation before. I refuse to vote for a party that doesn't advance proportional representation. That's entirely in my right to do so. Do whatever mental gymnastics you want to believe that it is me the problem who is preventing the advancement of proportional representation and democracy.
These talking points were widely and aggressively deployed before the US presidential election, leading to a Trump win.
If you don’t recognize that reality, you are encouraging a similar outcome.