The problem with FPTP
One of the most outrageous lies told by the anti-reform folks is that 'proportional representation' will trigger the arrival of extremist politicians. That is a lie. Voters choose the parties they wish, they get the government derived from the ballot box. Its fair to suggest that our current system has done more to hasten the arrival of more extreme politics than the option of changing the system.
As evidence, it was under FPTP in Canada that thanks to the regional concentration of the right-wing separatist BQ in Quebec, a party with no more than 12% of the popular vote nationally became Her Majesty's Official Opposition in 1993' this is despite the former PC party winning a significantly larger share of the popular vote, but spread out across the nation so that they lost all but 2 seats.
Equally, the regionally concentrated, ultra conservative Reform Party in that same election went from one seat to 3rd party with over 50 seats despite a lower proportion of the popular vote they'd otherwise be entitled under a different system.
Which brings us to another problem now being unveiled in Alberta.
The governing PC party lost power in 2015 when its internal factions that had sustained it all those 40 years in power blew apart. They've regrouped into a new "United Conservative Party" that is extreme-right and is having trouble keeping away alt-rightists and bigots from its supporter and activist pool. This is a problem because when the effort to create this party began, it was to unite all conservatives in Alberta to oppose the incumbent NDP government. The thought was that if conservative parties remained divided, the NDP would win another term as a result of FPTP. Well the effort has brought together all conservatives alright, including the fringe wingnuts who threaten to take control of the new organization.
Just like Trump's Republican Party in America.
Witness how few Republicans venture out to oppose Trump as they hitched their electoral wagons to his populist rhetoric. So this will be true of the UCP in Alberta; its gravitating to the pull of the irrational right who idolize Trump, and all of Alberta will suffer as a result.
So when an aspiring UCP politico compares the Pride Flag to the Nazi flag, he is rightly admonished. As a result, power brokers on that far right are threatening a new internal political civil war.
This isn't a tiny faction having a tantrum, these folks take up a large share of the new UCP. Just like the establishment GOP making peace with Trump and his ilk, you can almost guarantee that the same dynamic will play out in the UCP...and the big tent 'conservative' party will be controlled by a dangerous fringe just like what was supposed to happen under proportional representation. A system that may allow for such fringe groups to have a party they can call their own, but at least a system where that party can be easily identified and avoided on the ballot, rather than sneaking their way into the halls of power, in Edmonton. Ottawa. Or the White House.
my 2 bits
As evidence, it was under FPTP in Canada that thanks to the regional concentration of the right-wing separatist BQ in Quebec, a party with no more than 12% of the popular vote nationally became Her Majesty's Official Opposition in 1993' this is despite the former PC party winning a significantly larger share of the popular vote, but spread out across the nation so that they lost all but 2 seats.
Equally, the regionally concentrated, ultra conservative Reform Party in that same election went from one seat to 3rd party with over 50 seats despite a lower proportion of the popular vote they'd otherwise be entitled under a different system.
Which brings us to another problem now being unveiled in Alberta.
The governing PC party lost power in 2015 when its internal factions that had sustained it all those 40 years in power blew apart. They've regrouped into a new "United Conservative Party" that is extreme-right and is having trouble keeping away alt-rightists and bigots from its supporter and activist pool. This is a problem because when the effort to create this party began, it was to unite all conservatives in Alberta to oppose the incumbent NDP government. The thought was that if conservative parties remained divided, the NDP would win another term as a result of FPTP. Well the effort has brought together all conservatives alright, including the fringe wingnuts who threaten to take control of the new organization.
Just like Trump's Republican Party in America.
Witness how few Republicans venture out to oppose Trump as they hitched their electoral wagons to his populist rhetoric. So this will be true of the UCP in Alberta; its gravitating to the pull of the irrational right who idolize Trump, and all of Alberta will suffer as a result.
So when an aspiring UCP politico compares the Pride Flag to the Nazi flag, he is rightly admonished. As a result, power brokers on that far right are threatening a new internal political civil war.
This isn't a tiny faction having a tantrum, these folks take up a large share of the new UCP. Just like the establishment GOP making peace with Trump and his ilk, you can almost guarantee that the same dynamic will play out in the UCP...and the big tent 'conservative' party will be controlled by a dangerous fringe just like what was supposed to happen under proportional representation. A system that may allow for such fringe groups to have a party they can call their own, but at least a system where that party can be easily identified and avoided on the ballot, rather than sneaking their way into the halls of power, in Edmonton. Ottawa. Or the White House.
my 2 bits
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