Some highlights of Proportional Representation of voters:

From: https://www.asherfergusson.com/raising-a-family-index/ (2020)

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4 areas that countries with proportional representation do better: life satisfaction, economic growth, life expectancy, the environment.

What IS proportional representation anyway?

Graph showing pro rep means the share of seats a party gets equals its share of votes.
It just means voters reliably get what they voted. For example, if half the voters in a region support one political party, those voters get half the representatives sent from that region to govern. Not far fewer or far more, as often happens with our old voting system, “First-Past-The-Post”. (For definitions of Proportional Representation and First-Past-The-Post see Questions and Answers.)

With our current non-proportional voting system, most voters in most ridings are prevented from getting a representative of their preferred political party. We have lived with this limitation, but it is not necessary. With the multi-member electoral districts that are used by proportional representation voting systems, almost every voter can have a representative of their preferred political party:

95% of voters help elect an MLA with proportional representation, compared to only half with First Past The Post.
With Pro Rep, you wouldn’t worry about your vote getting wasted. Virtually every vote would count toward electing an MLA provincially (or an MP federally) so you’d almost certainly have a representative you helped elect, accountable to you.

PR-simple-stable-successful-government

 

Unlike our old voting system, Pro Rep assures true majority support, leading to better decision-making.
This graphic shows a dozen of the many practical benefits from Pro Rep that researchers have found.

Canada’s foremost journalist on the faults of our current non-proportional voting system, Andrew Coyne, and others give a compelling review of the state of electoral reform in 2021: June 2021 conference

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Chair of VotingBC

 

Welcome!

I hope you’ll enjoy checking out these 16 web pages – most are based on colorful graphic images except “About VotingBC”, and “Questions and Answers” which has definitions of “First-Past-The-Post” and “Proportional Representation” among other things. On smartphones you’ll notice some of the graphics here are better viewed in landscape mode 

In simple terms, proportional representation would give a legislature closer to the province-wide sentiment [and similarly federally]. It does this in a way that respects and includes almost every voter’s contribution. The democratic result is that almost every voter would have an MLA a bit closer to their own views.

But what is the practical result? In practice, it turns out that modern voting attracts better candidates, including significantly more women. Pro Rep gives more stable government policy and higher economic growth, by bringing in more consistent true-majority rule. There’s a bigger pie to share.

Thanks for visiting. Much of this factual info about proportional representation of voters was prepared in advance of British Columbia’s 2018 referendum on modernizing BC’s voting system. It remains informative for preparing to improve democracy in Canada.

-Maxwell Anderson, Chair, VotingBC
[updated July 5, 2021]

Authorized by Committee for Voting Equity in BC (VotingBC).