Two in three Ottawa residents favour electoral reform: poll
Aedan Helmer, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: October 8, 2016 | Last Updated: October 8, 2016 12:05 PM EDT
With Friday’s 11:59 p.m. deadline approaching for Canadians to have their say on electoral reform, a new Mainstreet/Postmedia study shows nearly two in three Ottawa residents support changing the way we vote.
“People in the Ottawa area are again proving to be particularly engaged when it comes to the discussion on electoral reform,” said pollster Quito Maggi, president of Mainstreet Research, which surveyed a random sample of 866 Ottawa residents.
Sixty-four per cent of poll respondents favoured some form of electoral reform, while only 17 per cent want to keep the current first past the post (FPTP) system.
The House of Commons Special Committee on Electoral Reform launched a cross-Canada tour in September, holding a national consultation with formal hearings and public sessions. Friday’s public meeting in Fredericton is the final one.
At last estimate, 2,800 Canadians had participated in an online consultation launched in August. The deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. Friday.
The committee website has published 113 briefs received from Canadians, and lists 58 witnesses, including economists, professors, political scientists and public policy experts.
According to the Mainstreet poll, nearly half of Ottawa residents surveyed (45 per cent) said they were following the issue, and 14 per cent said they were following it “very closely.” Only 16 per cent said they were not aware of the federal government’s plan to reform the way we vote.
That proportion was consistent among male and female respondents, though numbers spiked among voters aged 65 and over, with 59 per cent saying they were keeping a close watch, and only seven per cent unaware of electoral reform.
Despite the government’s efforts to publicize the consultations, however, only 31 per cent of respondents said they were aware of their MP’s holding consultations on electoral reform.
Mainstreet also queried respondents on their familiarity with the various voting methods under consideration.
People were most familiar with the single transferable vote (72 per cent), a proportional representation system used in Australia’s upper house in which voters rank candidates in order of preference, with the result based upon how each candidate ranks overall.
A majority of respondents (58 per cent) were familiar with Canada’s current first past the post system, 58 per cent were also familiar with the term proportional representation, 53 per cent were familiar with alternative vote, and 48 per cent were familiar with mixed member proportional representation.
Awareness does not necessarily indicate support for any particular system, the pollster noted.
The survey was conducted Oct. 1 and 2 by landline and cellphone, with results weighted by age and gender based on the 2011 Census. It carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.33 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Electoral Systems
Electoral systems are generally grouped in three categories:
• Plurality or majority systems: The winning candidate is the one who receives the most votes in an electoral district. The winner may need to receive a plurality (more votes than the other candidates) or a majority (over 50 per cent of the votes cast).
First past the post (FPTP): Under FPTP (the system currently used in Canada), a voter casts a single vote for a candidate to represent the electoral district in which the voter resides. The candidate who wins the most votes is elected. A party has as many seats in the legislature as it has candidates elected.
Alternative vote: On the ballot, voters rank the candidates running in their electoral district in order of their preference. To be elected, a candidate must receive a majority (more than 50 per cent) of the votes cast. If no one receives a majority on the first count, additional counts take place until a candidate wins.
• Proportional representation systems: Proportional representation systems seek to closely match a political party’s seat allocation in the legislature with its vote share.
Single transferable vote: Citizens in multi-member electoral districts rank candidates on the ballot. They may rank as few or as many candidates as they wish. Candidates get elected based on how well they rank overall. Unlike the Alternative Vote, which also uses ranking, the result in STV is proportional because each district is represented by a number of MPs who together represent the overall vote.
• Mixed electoral systems: Mixed electoral systems combine elements of a plurality or majority system with proportional representation.
Mixed member proportional: Voters in an electoral district cast two votes: one to directly elect a member to serve as their representative, and a second for a party or parties to fill seats in the legislature allocated according to the proportion of the vote share they receive. Seats are held by a combination of directly elected MPs and candidates from parties’ lists.
Source: Library of Parliament
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...al-reform-poll
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