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Canada needs a new political party... What is its platform? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/canada@lemmy.ca
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I think a majority of Canadians are kind, hardworking, and want what's best for their families, friends, neighbours, and the country.

What does a brand new political party platform look like to appeal to an overwhelming majority of Canadians?

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[–] 10 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

I'd love to see an Electoral Reform Party.

They have only two pillars once elected:

  1. They will only vote "Yes" to legislation to switch Canada to Single Transferable Vote for the next election, with details to be determined by Elections Canada.
  2. They will then vote as a block in complete solidarity with the party that introduced the legislation until the next election, when the party will disband.

Then, more generally, they campaign about how broken FPTP is and how completely compatible STV is to Canadian politics:

  1. Keep geographic representation as required by the Constitution.
  2. Roughly proportional government, without allowing tiny fringe parties from derailing our political systems.
  3. No more "safe seats" for incumbents, so everyone is truly accountable to their constituents.
  4. Very good chance that you will have a local MP that aligns with your political views to represent you.
  5. Can vote for parties or for individuals within the parties, so it can be simple to vote, but can also scale to political knowledge level and interest.

I could go on. Like that it's been a successful system in Ireland for over a century.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    I love this, but shouldn't they vote as a block, but proportionally for the parties who sponsor the bill? :p

    I'd change a couple things though:

    1. Allow members to vote independently on issues not impacting PR. While shooting down all legislation might force someone's hand, it would likely turn the party into the bad guys and possibly hold back positive change.
    2. Call the party the "Reform Party" (will sound more palatable to the right).
    3. Run on the promise that if they form government, they will enact PR, immediately call a new election. Not sure if they should disband as there are tons of other problems with our democracy than just PR.
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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    Re: 1, that would destroy their only leverage. The only way the party works is if they get enough seats that they're needed to form a coalition government. Otherwise, their votes are irrelevant: it's either a majority government or a coalition government that excludes them.

    2, can they call themselves that? The Reform Party presumably still owns that name, I would have thought? Still, good idea. "Reform Canada Party" maybe would work?

    Re: 3, the problem is that it will take time to get Elections Canada ready for an election with an entirely different voting system. They'll need to procure voting machines, create policies and training manuals for everything (including how to manually recount physical votes), define the ridings, design the new ballots, etc. They'll need a full election cycle to prepare for it.

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