The Election (no not that one, the OTHER one) (country, American)

mr dave · 10-15-2008, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jibber

Layton made some true gains, but Duceppe perhaps did better than any other candidate given his party history. To go from being practically irrelevant to having 50 seats in one night is unbelievable. I've said it before and I'll say it again, when someone has 50 seats in parliament and yet is only operating in one province, there needs to be an adjustment in our electoral system. Some type of proportional representation needs to happen.

irrelevant? how so? by getting 1 LESS seat than the last election? duceppe has been major political face since the 90s. the bloc managed to become the official opposition in their very first election in 1993 with 54 seats and have been a significant opposition factor since. the most 'irrelevant' point in their history was in 2000 when the bloc only had 38 seats. it looked as if the whole separation thing was waning and people were starting to relax a bit more and then the auditor general noticed the sponsorship scandal which just lit a whole new fire under them just in time for the 2004 election that saw them tie their first result with 54 seats again.

i think the fact that the bloc can routinely secure about 50 out of the province's 75 seats proves that having strong candidates for a focused party can lead to significant gains. unlike all the other parties trying to touch everyone by spreading themselves thin and letting just about anyone run on their behalf.

if anything i'd rather see more regional parties that stick to the areas they know best and focus on developing those areas. proportional representation would be nice but how do you decide who's voice counts to a specific candidate and who only speaks proportionately?