Political Parties & STV

Political Parties operating in a STV Electoral System can be seen as the confusing part to STV. To me this is not confusing at all and is one reason why I like the STV system.

Historically BC politics has been extremely polarized into two camps - NDP supporters vs Non-NDP supporters. This often goes to an extreme level where we will elect ANYONE as long as they are on our side of this political struggle. There is very little scrutiny of the individual themselves, just rather they support NDP or NOT.

The STV system forces us to be much more critical on the INDIVIDUAL as opposed to the PARTY. I can demonstrate this better if we look at some of the older ballots. Lets look at one riding in the 2009 election as an example.

Penticton  May 2009;

Bill Barisoff, Lib. 43.96%

Julius Robert Bloomfield, GP  15.66%

Chris Delaney, CP  8.90%

Wendy Dion, REFD  0.33%

Cameron Phillips, NDP 31.15%

This is the ballot that is public record that anyone can access at Elections BC. If we had the STV system in place in 2009 this would not have been the end result. The candidates dropped would have been both Chris and Wendy. The voters that voted for these two would have their "2" vote counted.

The voter may not have their original Political Party to vote for, and will have to make a choice of the remaining candidates. This is were the INDIVIDUAL candidate can tip the balance. Can Bill pursued the voters from Chris and Wendy to reach the 50% +1 mark? The voters for Chris and Wendy may not support the Liberal Party but Bill may have enough respect to grab enough votes to hit the mark.

If Bill does not reach the 50% +1 with the counting of Chris and Wendy voters, Julius would then be dropped and the voters of Julius "2" would be counted and spread between the remaining 2 candidates. Any votes Julius received from Chris and Wendy voters, their "3" would be counted. It is possible that the NDP could have won this seat, if the NDP had received these other votes.

Political Parties may not like this process as being dropped is not desirable. What does a Green Party supporter do when their party is dropped? One has to go deeper than just the PARTY and look at the INDIVIDUAL that is going to represent their interests. Today's system too many candidates simply ride the popularity of the PARTY they are running for. STV forces us to look deeper at our candidates.

Political Parties do not like this system as it reduces their POWER in the election and it becomes a little more balanced with the INDIVIDUAL having more to offer the PARTY. There is a little more balancing of POWER between the INDIVIDUAL and the PARTY!

The VOTERS win out! The voters for Chris and Wendy and possibly Julius still have a vote as to which of the 2 remaining candidates will actual WIN. Although the PARTY that these VOTERS originally supported may not win the seat, they still have a say as to which candidate will win! This is true DEMOCRACY!