With Regional Seats voting
Objectives of this voting system
Some years’ ago I devised the Regional Seats system of election with three objectives in mind:
- a].. to typically provide majority government – as it is the most accountable sort;
- b].. to always have a workable size of opposition; and
- c].. to prevent extensive areas from being represented by only one party.
- Recent federal election have all violated [c].
Canadian Federal Elections
A certain symmetry exists in the results of recent elections:
- In Alberta are 34 seats; ..Toronto-Brampton-Mississauga has 36.
- Often AB is nearly all Conservatives;
- Often Toronto area is all, or nearly all, Liberals.
- Each could be six regions, with one Regional MP per region;
- In AB these would be: two in Calgary, two in the Edmonton area, and two others, north and south of a line just below Red Deer.
- Toronto area likely_ Mississauga, Brampton, North Toronto, Scarborough, Toronto Harbour, and Etobicoke-Toronto.
- The New Democrats would likely get two Regional MPs in both places.
- But it’s hard to say how having Regional seats would affect how voters marked their ballots, (particularly the 1st preference on a ranked preference ballot – were it the voting system). Still, this shows the value of having Regional MPs in both AB and the Toronto area.
2021 Election
In mid 2021 a Prime Minister notorious for poor judgement triggered an early election because opinion polls suggested he could win a majority. ..It was an entirely needless, and heedless, move as the government’s mandate could have run another two years. ..Voters were not impressed, and the early election call became an issue that really never went away.
The outcome was a second minority for the Liberals, the results hardly any different from 2019. Here are the results in seats won by region for the four main parties: ..Liberals; Conservatives; New Democrats*; and Bloc Quebecois.
[*They have been “new” for over sixty years, and have truncated their policy platforms (both federal and provincial) to become the .Party of Social Works. in all but name.]
| west | ON | QB | Atl | terr | ||||
| Liberal | 2019 | 15 | 79 | 35 | 26 | 2 | 157 | |
| 2021 | 21 | 78 | 35 | 24 | 2 | 160 | ||
| Conservative | 2019 | 71 | 36 | 10 | 4 | – | 121 | |
| 2021 | 64 | 37 | 10 | 8 | – | 119 | ||
| New Democrat | 2019 | 15 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 24 | |
| 2021 | 18 | 5 | 1 | – | 1 | 25 | ||
| Bloc QB | 2019 | 32 | 32 | |||||
| 2021 | 32 | 32 | ||||||
Besides those of the major parties, in 2021 there were also 2 Green MPs, while in 2019 there was 1 independent and 3 Green MPs.
2019 Election
As if 59 regional seats had existed. (These would not be mere add-ons as shown here, but this is suggestive of what having RS voting would yield.)
2015 Election
The ridings in these Regions:
