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:
For there are 34 seats in Alberta and 36 in Toronto plus Brampton & Mississauga. …Alberta returned all or almost all Conservatives, while Toronto – Mississauga was all Liberal without exception. …Yet, each of these areas could have been grouped into six regions with each region having one Regional Member.
_In Alberta these regions would be two in Calgary, two in the Edmonton area, and two others divided north and south of a line running below Red Deer. ..The Toronto area would have six regions: likely __ Mississauga, Brampton, North Toronto, Scarborough, Toronto Harbour, and Etobicoke-Toronto.
_ The Regional MPs for Toronto-Mississauga may have been four Conservatives and two New Democrats, while Alberta may have had four Liberals and two New Democrats as its Regional MPs.
Although it is hard to say what difference in the vote might have happened had Regional Seats been in play — as it would affect how voters marked their ballots, (particularly the 1st preference on a ranked preference ballot — were it the voting system used).
_ Still, this shows the value of having a Regional Seats system of election, where a solid colour on the map of ridings becomes polka dotted with Regional Members from some other party or parties.
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:
