That is complete Bullshit.
What Trudeau is suggesting is that if the larger parties did not get a clear majority of the votes, they would have to pander to smaller parties desires and not get their own agenda passed. Coalition governments in the past and in the present in almost every other Democratic government in the world do not work that way. It is a straw-man argument. Coalition governments work because they have a common core that is similar and they will pass legislation that is common to each and they will pass one of each major concerns. This way government can actually be more democratic. Instead of one agenda being the course of the government it would be government of a larger slice of the people.
It would mean the end of Partisan Politics in Canada, before it gets as bad as it is in the States. The Liberal party and the Conservative party do not have to align with the fringes of their parties, they could just align with each other. If the Liberals and the Conservatives each had 30% of the popular vote, they could work together to pass both of their agendas. Hell, they could seek the support of the left for some things and the support of the right for others. Or they could make the laws fit the views of the majority of parliament, the way that a democracy was supposed to work in the first place, before parties.
Let's be clear, no one was really suggesting to give the Fringe power at all. Most of the free world with a Proportional Representation style election require any representative party to get 5% of the popular vote before they get a voice. 5% of the total voting public. Regional parties would have to meet this requirement, like the Bloc Québécois did. A regional party would have to accrue enough votes to get a total of 5% of the national vote. That makes sense, they are representing a region and wish to have a national impact.
In 2015 there were about twenty-five million eligible voters, 5% of that is 1.25 million voters. For the Bloc to be represented on a national level, they would have to get that many or more people to vote for them. That is a lot of people, which brings up another interesting point, if five percent of the voters is a fringe group, what does Trudeau think of people. To me, that sounds like a lot of people and a large group of people that deserve a voice.
That is of course assuming they vote, which is another part of Electoral Reform, Compulsory Voting. A law that makes voting compulsory. This comes with a few caveats. The first is that the first spot on a ballot is a spoil option. I Don't Know/Protest/None of these. Simply put, everyone needs to vote, but no one is forced to vote for anyone. The second is that there needs to be two sections, you can vote for a Party or you can vote for a person who can be part of a Political Party or could be an Independent. When the representatives for parliament are selected, the people with the most personal votes get to go. A vote for a person also counts for a political party if they have one.
So Electoral Reform is two things, Compulsory Voting and Proportional Representation. The means of forcing people to vote is up to the politicians, but I would be in favour of a soft enforcement, like a tax rebate rather than hard enforcement like a fine. I am 44 and I have voted in every election Federally and Provincially that I was eligible to vote in. I have never had my vote count for anything. Every time I vote, I have voted for a party that accrued more than 10% of the popular vote. I never voted for a 'Fringe' group. I want my vote to count for something.
Recap of last election. 25 million eligible voters. Voted for: Liberals 6.75 million, Conservatives 5.45 million, NDP 3.36 million, other 1.52 million.
Liberals get an absolute majority government with less than 27% of the eligible voters. This is the real reason why Trudeau has decided that the current Electoral System works just fine. Only in Canada do 6.75 million voters get to tell 18.25 million voters what to do.
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