FPTP vs MMP

[Evan Leibovitch]

Marcus Brubaker wrote:

> Israel and Belgium are true red herrings here.

They're reasonable (and real) examples of coalition gridlock. That they
exist in unstable political environments is understood -- yet Canada has
also had its times of political chaos (think Meech Lake).


> In fact, FPTP
> *encourages* geopolitical divisions in the electorate, witness the Bloc.

One can't suck and blow at the same time. You can't attack FPTP for
encouraging geopolitical divisions, while championing the MMP
empowerment of small parties.

If MMP happened on a federal level, some of the first new parties would
certainly be aboriginal and western separatist groups, which (unlike the
Bloc when it started) already have grassroots base. Indeed, if MMP were
to succeed here it wouldn't surprise me if a party were to evolve to
advocate the GTA's separation from Ontario -- a POV advanced by folks as
disparate as Mel Lastman and Jane Jacobs.

- Evan

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