Proportional Representation

## Issue

    The current system of first-past-the-post or **winner takes all** is a system that sometimes does not represent the majority of the people. This results in "false majorities".

### False Majorities

To pass a bill as a law in the legislature the governing party needs the majority of the MLAs supporting the bill. Any majority government will and can pass any bills effortlessly. Like the NDP passing the Carbon Tax Bill in 2016.

For e.g. when the NDP government brought forward the carbon tax bill.

## Summary of the Proposal

* **People are the winner**: There are no winners or losers. This is not a hockey game or sports. There is no trophy. Seats are "assigned" as per the "eligibility" of the party and candidate.
* **Step - 1, Ranking the performers:** A list for each party or group (see step-2) is made ranking the top performers of that party based on their share of votes won. The candidate with the highest share in their district will be ranked first.
* **Step - 2, Calculating Group Shares and assignment:** Each party's share in the total vote is calculated. Minor parties and independents are grouped and calculated as their shares. In the below example note:
	+ Independents as a group get one seat. No matter how many independents contested. It could 3 or 20 independents. They will be ranked as per step-1 and assigned that one seat to the top performer.
	+ Minor parties as a group will get three seats. No matter how many minor parties and their candidates contested. It could 1 or 3 parties. The parties will be treated as a candidate and ranked as per step-1 and assigned that one seat to the top-performing party. In turn, the party to whom the seat is assigned shall assign the seat to its top performer.

* **Multiple MLAs:** Seats are assigned to the top performers of the party. This may mean that one district may have two top-performing candidates of Party A and Party B and both will be assigned a seat.
* **Empty districts:** The above also means that some neighborhoods might have produced the weakest performers by provincial rank and they won't be assigned that seat though they might have seem to "won" that district. The business of the empty districts will be taken care of by the second MLA from the multiple MLA district. This process will be called "Designation"
* **Guaranteed Seat:** Each party that nominates in all 100% district is automatically assigned one seat to th legislature. The highest people approved candidate in that party will be assigned the guaranteed **seat.**
* **Independents are encouraged**: Independent candidates are excluded from this system and will retain their seat and district if they have majority approval.

## Benefits of the System

* **Votes are not wasted:** The popular vote is what drives this system. Every person's vote goes toward electing someone.
* **Unnecessary MLAs:** If "majority rules the minority" is the principle then it is useless for the majority to have more than 51 %. Unless there is a very high people's push to vote for a specific party.
* **Stronger Opposition:** Nothing democratically positive is achieved by having more number of MLAs. In fact, debate and opposition are now stronger and diversified and democratically represented.

## Proposal

* No party is eligible for a seat if the total party's votes won is less than 1.15% of the total voted.
* After distributing 84 of the 87 seats, the remaining 3 seats can be divided among the parties based on their percentages among them. In the above case, UCP and NDP will get 2:1.

 NDP
 ABP
 ABL

## Current Problem

### People are not represented fairly

For e.g. In 2019 let us assume that the NDP lost all the seats, but in every neighborhood, they garnered 49% support, which is about a million Albertans supporting the NDP yet they have zero representation in the legislature.

UCP 51 %: NDP 49% that is for every 102 UCP voters there are 98 NDP voters. Almost half of the people are going unrepresented (The US election of Donald Trump is an example) This leads to two things

* People's interests are not represented in the legislature.
* A bitterness to politics and democracy develops. People start feeling powerless or "waste of time". The US election of Donald Trump is a prime example of bitterness and divisiveness developing among people. Nobody knows what the social cost of this bitterness and divisiveness.

It can be argued that the hypothetical situation is never going to happen. Actually it is happening.

Democracy is not a hockey game nor a government is a trophy to be taken by the "winner". Democracy is where the people have power. The people have a voice in the legislature. People have to wait for 4 years until the tyranny of the winning party ends.

## Political Diversity is Destroyed

The Alberta Party or a third party in Alberta history always had a 5%+ votes but won no seats in the legislature. For e.g. in 2019 the Alberta Party won more than 9% of the votes, which is about 1,71,000 Albertans. That is a very large number of people who are going unrepresented in a winner takes it all system.

This is the reason Politicians are not working round the year for their constituencies and come door knocking on the election day. Because according to the politician "it is a losing game"

The winner takes it all system demotivates the parties other than the "big two" and also discourages anyone to start a new party or enter in politics. This is a serious threat for people. It is like having only two plumbers for the entire city of Calgary. Either they are busy all the time or they just don't care because they don't have to.

This could be blamed on the concept of electoral colleges or electoral districts, like for eg a village of 500 people have one seat in the legislature where a city district of 35,000 people has nothing more than one seat. The debate then continues whether the district system is true to the principles of democracy or not.