While British Columbians wait with baited breath for the final results from BC’s provincial election, one thing is clear: First-past-the-post has robbed voters of choice, deeply polarized communities, and when it comes to the biggest issues facing British Columbia, resolved absolutely nothing.
BC Conservative leader John Rustad’s election night speech captured the sorry state of affairs:
“If we are in that situation of the NDP forming a minority government, we will look at every single opportunity from day one to bring them down …and get back to the polls.”
A leader whose party received 44% of the popular vote vowing to do everything in his power to ensure the legislature doesn’t work for the majority, gunning for the next chance to seize all the power with less than half of the vote, is a brutal, yet predictable outcome of first-past-the-post.
If the supposed advantages of our winner-take-all system are its ability to cater to the centrist voter, ensure “strong, stable majority governments”, prevent “backroom deals”, deliver fast results on election night, and keep out extremists, it has failed utterly on all counts―all at once.
BC’s election has exposed these claims for what they are: at best, misleading talking points from those who haven’t reviewed the evidence, and at worst, deliberately dishonest assertions from shallow politicians who consistently put their own ambitions of power ahead of the public interest when it comes to electoral reform...
In my area the Greens and NDP split 62% of the vote and so the Conservative candidate won with 38%. A ranked choice or similar scheme would have provided a more realistic representation of the electorate.
You're getting caught up in the rhetoric that causes the polarization in FPTP. They are different parties, you can't just arbitrarily lump all their votes together as if every Green voter would have voted NDP or every NDP voter would have voted Green.
While I agree with you in principle, the Greens and NDP have far more in common than the Greens and Con or NDP and Con. In a ranked system the majority of votes would be NDP-Green-Con or Green-NDP-Con. I do not blame the Greens or NDP for going their own way, it is FPTP that is flawed and can easily lead to minority rule.