Conversations That Matter | Wrestling with Democracy (w/ Dennis Pilon, York University) @ConversationsThatMatter | Uploaded May 2023 | Updated October 2024, 5 hours ago.
@CanadianPM Justin Trudeau had promised that the 2015 federal election would be the last time a government would be chosen in Canada using the first-past-the-post voting system. That promise promptly evaporated and morphed into support for a proportional representation voting system. In the following months, the Prime Minister directed the Minister of Democratic Institutions to drop the idea.
In 2021, the @liberalpartyofcanada1291 Liberals set a record for the lowest vote share of a party that would go on to form government, winning 32.6 percent of the popular vote, while losing the popular vote. According to the federal @ElectionsCanada Elections Canada, voter turnout numbers were just less than half of the population of the country. Only 17 million of Canada’s 35 million people voted. The Liberals only received 5.6 million votes, yet went on to form a minority government in a coalition with the @canadasndp5252 NDP, which received only 2.3 percent of the popular vote.
Despite those numbers, the Liberals and the NDP signed a pact to support one another and govern as though they have a majority mandate. The results suggest that democracy is not being served and needs to be reformed. Dennis Pilon, a @YorkUniversityOfficial Professor in the Department of Politics, urges caution in making such an assertion. He argues, “Voting system reform has been a part of larger struggles over defining democracy itself.”
We invited Professor Dennis Pilon to join us for a @ConversationsThatMatter about the way in which we choose our government and whether the system needs to be reformed.
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Please become a Patreon subscriber and support the production of this program, with a $1 pledge goo.gl/ypXyDs
ctm452 #electoralreforms #cdnpoli #politics #stuartmcnish #dennispilon #yorku #yorkuniversity @Patreon
@CanadianPM Justin Trudeau had promised that the 2015 federal election would be the last time a government would be chosen in Canada using the first-past-the-post voting system. That promise promptly evaporated and morphed into support for a proportional representation voting system. In the following months, the Prime Minister directed the Minister of Democratic Institutions to drop the idea.
In 2021, the @liberalpartyofcanada1291 Liberals set a record for the lowest vote share of a party that would go on to form government, winning 32.6 percent of the popular vote, while losing the popular vote. According to the federal @ElectionsCanada Elections Canada, voter turnout numbers were just less than half of the population of the country. Only 17 million of Canada’s 35 million people voted. The Liberals only received 5.6 million votes, yet went on to form a minority government in a coalition with the @canadasndp5252 NDP, which received only 2.3 percent of the popular vote.
Despite those numbers, the Liberals and the NDP signed a pact to support one another and govern as though they have a majority mandate. The results suggest that democracy is not being served and needs to be reformed. Dennis Pilon, a @YorkUniversityOfficial Professor in the Department of Politics, urges caution in making such an assertion. He argues, “Voting system reform has been a part of larger struggles over defining democracy itself.”
We invited Professor Dennis Pilon to join us for a @ConversationsThatMatter about the way in which we choose our government and whether the system needs to be reformed.
---
Please become a Patreon subscriber and support the production of this program, with a $1 pledge goo.gl/ypXyDs
ctm452 #electoralreforms #cdnpoli #politics #stuartmcnish #dennispilon #yorku #yorkuniversity @Patreon
