Counting on democracy

This can lead to some undemocratic results, such as in the 1998 Quebec election when the Charest-led Liberals won the popular vote but the Parti Québécois won a landslide in actual seats because of our current first-past-the-post system. The problem is that all ridings are not created equal. They vary from about 25,000 electors to 60,000, so some MNAs are elected with twice as many ballots cast than others. Quebec tries to average ridings at about 45,000 electors but leaves a margin of error of plus/minus 25 per cent. Not only is this percentage too high to be fair and democratic, it isn't even always met.

The proposed changes would only slightly alter the West Island electoral map, with all of Kirkland included in Jacques-Cartier, as opposed to the current set up with a small part of the town being part of Nelligan. Ste. Anne de Bellevue, on the other hand, is being moved from Jacques-Cartier to Nelligan. While Ste. Anne residents may have more affinity with the Lakeshore than the North Shore, at least the municipal boundaries are mostly respected in the proposed changes.

While these proposals are an improvement, they do not go far enough. A commission looking into mixed proportional representation was held a few years back but the government is still mulling over the matter. A working proposal then called for 77 MNAs elected in individual ridings as they are now but about another 50 MNAs would be elected through votes cast in regions, an attempt to make each vote 'count.' The minister responsible for government reform, Benoît Pelletier, now has a feasibility study on the matter submitted to him last December by Quebec's director of elections.

While this mixed proportional representation doesn't go far enough for some, it would be a move in the right direction. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much political will, from any of the three major provincial parties, to push this through. A move to mixed proportional representation wouldn't be a dramatic change. However, considering the knee-jerk reaction last week from some rural MNAs who vow to fight the proposed changes to the unfairly weighted electoral boundaries now in place, it will be an uphill battle to improve our rights to have a fair democracy in which every vote counts equally.