FPTP vs MMP

[Colin McGregor]

--- Ivan Avery Frey <ivan.frey-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> > | From: Ivan Avery Frey <ivan.frey-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org>
> > 
> > | So in the 1995 election with the PCs at 44.8%,
> the Liberals at 39.9%, and the
> > | NDP at 12.6%, we might have had a Liberal
> minority government with the NDP
> > | holding the balance of power.
> > 
> > I don't understand how you (and several other
> people) talk as if
> > changing the system would not change how people
> vote.  It surely
> > would.  So you cannot take a past election's
> statistics and say what
> > would have happened with MMP.  You don't even know
> what parties would
> > have been available.
> 
> Absolutely correct. MMP gives every elector 2 votes.
> One for the local 
> riding candidate and a party vote.
> 
> One could speculate that NDP might have received a
> greater share of the 
> party vote, because a lot of liberal votes were
> probably strategic.

One could also easily speculate that NDP support would
have collapsed and fallen through the floor as people
who under  MMP would have voted for the Green party
(or other small party candidates) voted NDP as a way
to get someone into Queen's Park who wasn't Grit or
Tory.

With MMP ALL bets are off, We know it will help small
parties, and that there will be more small parties.
Beyond that, who knows? It could effectively destroy
the NDP, as normal NDP supporters turn to further left
parties. 

Colin McGregor

> Ivan.
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