A little primer on proportional representation

One of the more insidious talking points of the anti reform side is that changing to a proportional representation system will give rise to extremist groups.

This is bullshit.

The electoral system doesn't determine who gets seats, it determines how they're elected. Ultimately, voters choose who gets to represent them.

But to the false point being made by the chicken-little movement, consider Alberta for a moment. To consolidate conservative votes into one party in order to beat the NDP in '19, Jason Kenney has formed his UCP movement. 

Mathematically, it works. If you take all the right leaning votes that had split into 2 or 3 parties and replace with 1 option (assuming all vote for #1), then you win. The trouble is that among the conservative spectrum in Alberta, they have...issues.

I'll pause here for a moment and underline this: not all rational conservatives are extremist in their views. While I don't necessarily agree with their political or social views, I'll happily agree to disagree when its called for.

Resuming.

The issues on the far right in Alberta dive deep into white supremacy, religious extremism, Islamophobia, homophobia, trans-phobia and the like. Things are competitive in some of the nomination races within the UCP; with folks harboring such intolerant and racist views aiming to be the party standard bearer in the upcoming provincial election. 

This is a problem for UCP leadership as you want to reach across the divide. The moderate minded voter doesn't tend to vote for extremist parties.

What does this mean? It means that hiding within the large big tent conservative party poised to take on the NDP, extremists and their agenda await Alberta should they take over.

But I thought proportional representation did that? No. To keep the peace, UCP power brokers will likely deal in these extremists on one plank or another; so the current first-past-the-post model will inevitably rewards the extremists. With real power.

Under PR, if extremists tried to take over a party, the party could tell them to go fuck themselves. Then the extremists could form their own party which everyone would see, and likely avoid.

This doesn't mean extremists won't get power in PR; if they do, that's a poor reflection on larger mainstream parties who fail to address rising issues that give way to reactionary extremists when problems boil over.  

Its not the players, its the game.

My 2 bits

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