Half Of Canadians Polled Don’t Feel Heard In A Party-Based System

In a recent informal survey, International Perspectives asked 100 Canadian respondents whether or not they felt their voice was being heard in a party-based electoral system. A considerable 52% felt that they were not heard in a party-based system, with a further 13% responding that they did not know whether their voice was heard or not. The figures suggest that the electoral options put forth in the upcoming referendum do not adequately reflect the changes many Canadian voters actually desire to see, which might entail moving away from political parties altogether.

With nearly all of the respondents, 87%, viewing narrow-based parties either unfavourably or ambivalently, it is unlikely that voters in Ontario will accept a Mixed Member Proportional system, which would effectively give more influence to smaller parties.

Some 65% of respondents felt that they do understand the electoral options put forth in the referendum. Although 75% of respondents were not even aware that a Citizen’s Assembly had been established to consider the electoral options.

Although many respondents (39%) felt that they knew their local candidates in the upcoming election, 48% of those polled felt they did not know their local candidates whereas another 13% were uncertain whether they knew their local candidates or not. Such figures suggest that although changes to our current electoral system need to be considered, proposed improvements should present solutions to voter concerns as opposed to magnifying the short-comings. This leaves some to wonder at the effectiveness or legitimacy of using unelected-layman organizations to propose such serious changes to public institutions.

This entry was posted on October 9 2007 at 00:36 and is filed under North America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.