Gravelbourg & District Tribune

The next federal election will be another time most Canadians will waste their votes. Not because Pierre Poilievre could be the next Prime Minister. Yet that would be strange. He’s never done anything in his life except sit on a bench in the House of Commons. Is being an MP all your life like having a real job?

 

Would he consider giving up his over $3-million pension if he becomes Prime Minister? He is, after all, a fiscal Conservative. Right?

 

But I digress… so back to my original statement. The next federal election would probably find us with the Bloc Quebecois as the official opposition. That's right! A separatist party! Only in Canada… heh! This is because we have a first-past-the-post electoral system. The outgoing Trudeau promised to change how we vote when he got elected and didn’t follow thru.

 

A national poll shows that 68% of Canadians support proportional representation. So why isn’t it happening? I guess the Liberals figure they’ve been elected the most times using the current voting system so why mess with it. It’s easier to win an election when you don’t need 50% of the popular vote to secure a majority government.

 

Canada is one of three countries using first-past-the-post. A party forming a majority government and also winning a majority of the votes cast has happened only six times: 1900; 1904; 1917; 1940, 1958 and 1984.

 

Maybe Poilievre would consider… Ah! Wishful thinking.